The ASX welcomed a new banking stock to its electronic boards on Tuesday with the listing of scrip in BSP Financial Group Limited.
BSP is the largest financial services provider in the South Pacific, with banking operations in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands.
The company’s corporate headquarters are based in Port Moresby where its shares have traded on the PNG National Stock Exchange since 2003.
Chairman Sir Kostas Constantinou said the dual listing aimed to boost the liquidity of the group’s shares and open new sources of capital to fund business growth.
“The dual listing will give BSP access to alternative sources of capital to fund our future growth ambitions, deliver improved services to our customers and enhance shareholder liquidity,” he said.
“This is a very exciting development for BSP and BSP’s existing shareholders.”
BSP, which was previously known as the Bank of the South Pacific, acquired most of its banking footprint in the region from three Australian major banks – NAB, CBA and Westpac.
BSP currently trades on multiple of only 6.95 times earnings even though its current share price implies a dividend yield of almost 11 per cent.
The company is the second PNG-based financial services provider to list on the ASX, following the listing of Kina Securities in July 2015.
Kina Securities’ core asset is Kina Bank – BSP’s main competitor in the PNG and Fiji banking markets.
Sir Kostas is a member of one of PNG’s most influential business families that first came to prominence in the 1950s when a Greek-Cypriot immigrant named George Constantinou (later Sir George) established a property development company in Port Moresby.
Sir George is believed to have been PNG’s richest citizen when he died in 2008.