BSP: H1 net profit K163.45m

Source:
By PATRICK TALU
BANK South Pacific has recorded yet another impressive half-year consolidated profit of K209.06 million, up almost 10% from last year’s take of K190.48 million.After-tax profit was K163.45 million, the bank said.BSP chairman Noreo Beangke yesterday said the after-effect of global financial crisis last year triggered “a year of mixed business prospect, economic lethargy and persistent uncertainty”.However, under these conditions, BPS performed credibly to post a solid year-on-year increased profit, buoyed by PNG economy’s being relatively insulated from the global financial crisis, some resilience and recovery in the prices of its key exports, and of course, the optimism surrounding the LNG project, Beangke said.He said this year, the PNG economy had progressed well along the same path last year.“The underlying contributing factors remained unchanged, reflected in the outcome of the first-half of this year,” he said.Beangke said the bank’s revenue was moderate due in part to a more controlled lending strategy with interest income growth level off slightly.Robust non-interest income growth had offset weaker interest income.In term of expenses, work on operation improvement initiatives across the organisation which began last year under the BSP’s transformation programme, continued strongly during the first six months.Beangke said increased investment in risk management and internal control and process reengineering throughout the organisation were some of the continuing focus areas.He added there had been continued growth in the level of BSP group total assets from K9.398 billion at the end of last year to K9.815 billion as of June 30, this year.Beangke said the customer loan and receivables portfolio had exceeded K3.77 billion, a net increase of 4%, or K136 million, from the level of K3.638 billion at the end of last year.