BSP targets Colonial Fiji [Monday, June 29, 2009]

*Leading bank wants to boost lending once ExxonMobil-led LNG project takes off
By SHEILA LASIBORI
BANK South Pacific (BSP) is working to increase its capital to about K1 billion by next year, Ian Clyne, BSP’s chief executive officer, said.
“So that we can be a more active participant in the ExxonMobil-led liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in terms of lending ... we have increased concentration limits in terms of exposure to specific industry sectors and major clients,” he added.
The bank is also looking to raise K100 million from its “tier 2 notes” offer, he said.
He explained that due to compliance and regulatory issues for several institutional investors, BSP was still trying to finalise the issue.
He said BSP’s capital raising drive would also support its ongoing Pacific strategy should an interesting investment materialise.
“BSP is already a very well capitalised bank,” he said following reports of BSP in talks with the National Colonial Bank of Fiji to purchase its Fiji operations.
He said BSP’s capital raising strategy was linked to the medium term objects of the bank. He said Colonial Fiji was always viewed as an entity BSP was very interested in acquiring, as was the National Bank of Vanuatu and a privately-owned bank of Samoa.
“BSP will continually look for high value acquisition opportunities, but our focus for the next six to 12 months will be on improving service quality in PNG, and if we proceed to acquire Colonial Fiji, will integrate Colonial into the BSP family,” Mr Clyne said.
Colonial National Bank has a 20% market share, 17 branches and 31 automatic teller machines (ATM).
But while BSP looked to expand in the region, Mr Clyne said PNG would always be the centre of its banking activities and where it focused majority of its activities.