CHAIRMAN of National Provident Fund, Peter Boyers says the domestic equity investments continued to perform strongly again this year.
Speaking at the end of the Fund’s financial year yesterday, Boyers said this was seen by the increase in their cash dividends from their domestic equity investments;
a) South Pacific Oil Limited (SPOL),
b) Solomon Telekom Company Limited (STCL),
c) Heritage Park Hotel Limited (HPHL), and
d) Solomon Islands Home Finance Limited (SIHFL) contributing more than 35% to our overall 2016 income at $124 million.
Boyers said other parts of the Fund’s domestic equity portfolio Sasape International Shipyard Limited (SISL) and Soltuna Limited are still managed actively as they develop their business or continue with their restructuring and capital investment program.
Furthermore, he said Solomon Oceanic Cable Company (SOCC) has not commenced the laying of its undersea cable yet.
“We are in discussions with the government on its new direction for improvement in broadband connectivity that will affect the future of SOCC as an entity but not our investments in SOCC, that will be transferred to a new entity to build our country’s first undersea cable,” he said.
Moreover, he said their returns from their offshore equities in Australia, PNG, US and Europe, in particular PNG based Bank South Pacific Ltd delivered another strong dividend of just over $5.6 million.
However, Boyers said this was overshadowed by the weakness of its share price and the reducing value of the PNG Kina.
“Our other equity exposures through managed funds in Australia also registered smaller gains of around $0.5m, however due to softening exchange rates against the SBD exchange rate losses have depleted most of the gains in the overall offshore equities along with price movements,” he said.
To note that the fund is a long term investor, these fluctuation losses are further mitigated by holding this view, he explained.
By EDDIE OSIFELO
