1. BSP Life has been serving generations of Fijians for 150 years. How has the company evolved over that time, and what is your vision for BSP Life as it enters its next chapter of growth?
Firstly, thank you for the opportunity and privilege to be part of the group that you're consulting with on this visit.
Our background, as you mentioned, started 150 years ago. We are an insurance company first, with a large investment portfolio that backs the products that we offer. Our first insurance policy was sold in 1876, just two years after Fiji was ceded to Great Britain.
So we go back a long way. Fast forward to 1970, when Fiji gained independence, and we were there along that journey. Today, more than 50 years after independence, we've essentially been part of the fabric of Fiji and the South Pacific for a very long time.
We've seen opportunities, challenges and risks. There's been a lot of experience that we've captured along the way, which has enabled us to keep evolving how we influence not only business, but also the economies and countries that we serve.
The products we provide are not your traditional insurance products where there's only a payment in the event of death or a traumatic incident. Our products have those core elements, but also an investment-backed component.
For example, if you take a 15-year policy, that policy accumulates gains from our investment portfolio every year. If you survive to the end of those 15 years, you receive the value of all those accumulated bonuses at that point in time.
So you essentially have a product that looks after your beneficiaries in the event of an untimely passing or traumatic event, but also provides a benefit if you survive the term, with compounded returns accumulating over time.
It's essentially a one-stop shop where you get protection, savings and investments all wrapped into one.
For markets like Fiji, where we are trying to encourage a financial literacy and savings culture, this is a solution that works really well.
To support this, we have to grow value for our customers and we do this through a diversified and balanced investment portfolio.
Over the course of our 150 years, we've been part of the tapestry of the Fijian economy through our various investments instruments. We have a fixed-income fund where we buy government bonds, which helps government finance infrastructure projects.
We also have a large property portfolio made up of residential and commercial property, most of it in the CBD of Suva. We have a strong presence on the stock exchange, offshore investments in managed funds, and a private-equity investment asset class covering unlisted investments.
For example, we're currently the sole proprietor of one of the largest private hospitals in Fiji, Oceania Hospitals. We also used to be the sole owner of a chicken farm in the western part of Fiji. That business employs around 500 people in a rural part of Fiji.
So beyond the investments and the need to provide returns to our customers, there's also the element of giving back to the community and creating opportunity.
We were the sole owner of the chicken farm for many years, then we divested 40% to the Fiji National Provident Fund, the largest institutional investor in Fiji,. So we're syndicating there.
Another major investment we have is the Sofitel. We co-invested with Air Pacific at the time, now Fiji Airways, just over 20 years ago. At the time, there were only a few hotels on Denarau. Our intention with this investment was to catalyze more branded hotels on Denarau, which is exactly what happened following the completion of Sofitel.
So the primary focus of everything we do is to deliver the returns needed for our shareholders and policyholders, while generating catalytic opportunities for the Fijian economy.
Fast forward to 2026, we're developing three new hotels under our partnership with Fiji Airways. If you go to Denarau today, you'll see a large hotel nearing completion, which we call Vatu Talei or The Jewel. It should be ready for soft opening later this year and full operations by the end of March next year. That's going to position the Fiji tourism product at a higher, more affluent end of the market, complementing what we already have with Sofitel.
Aside from that large development, there are two other projects that will open before December. One opens in the first week of September and is a villa-style offering between the Denarau and Nadi Airport corridor. Then, in November, there's a four-star property adjacent to Sofitel that will open, with just over 100 rooms Within that precinct, you'll have a four-star property, Tribe, under the Accor brand; the five-star Sofitel; and Vatu Talei, which is a higher-end Sofitel offering. So in one precinct, you have offerings that cater for virtually every segment of the market.
If you go back to how we originated the Sofitel 25 years ago, it was catalytic. More hotels came onto Denarau. We're now developing these new properties, and that will probably be catalytic for Fiji because you'll find more high-end products coming into the market on the back of it.
We've found through our journey that when we tie our investment ambitions to the economy, what's good for Fiji is good for us. That has paid dividends over time, and we'll continue to do that in the future.
One of the big learnings, particularly over the last two decades, is that syndication is the way to go. For example, our partnership with Fiji Airways has enabled us to move from one asset to four.
What we foresee into the future is syndication among institutional investors in Fiji together with foreign investors. We have foreign investors interested in coming into Fiji who can partner with institutions like ourselves to move into areas that are going to dial up the economy.
There are numerous areas that still have tremendous opportunity, whether in ICT, renewable energy, commercial agriculture or tourism.
The key takeaway from our recent experience is that syndication is the way to go because you pool financial capital, and you also pool intellectual capital.
A bigger group of like-minded investors enables us to create opportunities together and optimize outcomes along the way.
So, just to round out those opening remarks, over 150 years we've come a long way. We've seen the Fijian economy grow, and we've grown as a business alongside it.
Our belief is that the best years for Fiji are still ahead of us, building on the good foundations we now have in place.
2. What insurance and savings products are currently proving most relevant to Fijian consumers?
The products that are popular are the ones I mentioned earlier: one solution where you're covering protection for your family in the event that something untoward happens, while also, through a small contribution, whether fortnightly or monthly, building a nest egg for the future.
We have a retirement fund, the Fiji National Provident Fund, of which everyone in the formal sector is a member. We see that as your long-term nest egg for retirement.
As we go through the cycle of life, there are short- to medium-term needs. So the way we've designed our products is to build for your retirement through the Provident Fund and try not to touch those funds, even though there are certain elements that you can access depending on particular needs. The longer you leave those funds there, the better it is for you.
Then take up these insurance products as an adjacent solution that can meet your short- to medium-term needs. Some of our products are designed to provide cash payouts, in three-year cycles before you reach the end maturity, whether that's 15 years, 21 years, etc.
3. With an investment portfolio approaching FJ$2 billion, BSP Life has become one of Fiji's largest institutional investors. How do you balance generating strong long-term returns for policyholders with investing in projects that contribute to Fiji's broader economic development?
The ethos of our investment strategy is based on very strong governance architecture to ensure that any project we undertake provides durable returns.
We have a fiduciary responsibility to the people who place their funds with us. Every dollar they give us, we must work extremely hard to provide value for them.
That's been the ethos of this business from the first policy we sold in 1876 up until today, irrespective of our size. It's part of our DNA.
That drives the way we direct our capital to ensure that projects are durable and can withstand the volatility. The risk-reward trade-off goes through a meticulous process before we say yes to something we want to do.
As I mentioned earlier, to catalyze large developments, the best way to balance long-term durable returns with managing risk over time is through syndication. Through collaboration, you're able to unlock potential with developments that can either build on an existing industry like tourism or move into less mature markets and build them over time.
The mantra is: share risk, share reward, but do it with trusted partners that have the same long-term lens.
Values alignment is very important to us when we're partnering with another co-investor. They must meet similar investment criteria and have the same long-term perspective.
We're not about coming in, picking up a distressed asset, turning it around, making quick money and getting out. We're about long-term sustainability.
That's an operating model that we feel can be used not just for BSP Life and local institutional investors, but also with like-minded partners from overseas who want to come into Fiji.
4. Tourism is a major focus of BSP Life's investment strategy. What attracted the company to expanding its portfolio in tourism, and how do these investments fit into the broader strategy of deploying capital productively within Fiji?
The Sofitel investment was our first major foray into tourism, and as mentioned earlier was in partnership with our national airline.
At the time, Air Pacific, now Fiji Airways, wanted to grow its fleet and expand into new destinations, but there was a lack of hotels to match that ambition.
For the syndication, because Fiji Airways had that ambition, it gave us an assurance that if we invested, there would be a higher certainty of demand coming through. It wasn't a guarantee, but the key partner in the development was the major provider of tourism visitors into Fiji.
That gave us a higher degree of comfort that the investment had a good chance of being successful. Looking back, it’s been a great investment. Fiji Airways is an excellent joint venture partner, and there are more things we're doing together.
5. How important is the North American market to the design of Fiji's next generation of tourism products?
What we're conscious of is that you've got an affluent customer coming a long way to Fiji. The product we have needs to meet the expectations of those customers, alongside what we're already doing for our primary markets in Australia and New Zealand.
When we're developing new product offerings, we're conscious of what the longer-haul North American, Asian and European traveler will be looking for. For example, the elements we've incorporated into the design of Vatu Talei, which is going to be a pre-eminent on-island resort in Fiji, have a wide range of features built into them.
In essence, what we have on the ground needs to align with markets Fiji Airways is serving.
6. BSP Life, through the Yavu Collective partnership with Fiji Airways, is introducing three new hotels. You're also developing a luxury property on Nacula Island with Dubai-based Kerzner International. What can you tell us about these projects, and what impact do you expect them to have on Fiji's tourism offering, employment and local communities?
The Yavu Collective is the name we've given to the consortium we're partnering through BSP Life and Fiji Airways, which owns the four hotels: Sofitel Fiji Resort and Spa, Sofitel Vatu Talei, Tribe Natoba, and The Sebel, which are all under the Accor brand.
From an employment perspective, we currently employ about 600 staff at Sofitel. That will grow to between 1,000 and 1,500 by the time we're fully operational. So, it has an immediate impact on the growing Nadi economy.
The partnership with Kerzner is a separate partnership. Kerzner is the majority shareholder in the One&Only brand we're introducing in the Yasawa Islands.
The Yasawa Islands are one of the most beautiful parts of Fiji. One&Only scouts the global market looking for iconic places where it can develop something truly unique and this location is worthy of the One&Only brand.
We’ve commenced preliminary works and development is targeted to commence next year. Hopefully, if all goes to plan, we can open the resort at the end of 2029.
So how does that influence Fiji tourism and the Fijian economy?
It's in the ultra-luxury segment, which complements Fiji’s existing tourism offering. Additionally, One&Only has strong presence in markets such as North America, which supports Fiji’s ambition to grow our long-haul markets.
Employment creation with a renowned global hospitality brand will also be a huge benefit for our people, including the landowners of Nacula.
7. These investments represent a significant commitment of institutional capital to Fiji. How important is it for BSP Life to demonstrate that domestic institutional investors can help finance major infrastructure and tourism projects while creating long-term value for policyholders?
I think where we're at as an institution is that we've got demonstrated capability. We don't have a pipeline of things we're promising that we haven't executed.
We've got well-established businesses that are part of the ecosystem of the Fijian economy.
Credibility doesn't come overnight. You build your reputation through developments that become operating assets delivering value for stakeholders, whilst supporting the wider economy.
Given our history in that space, we see the opportunity going forward, through this catalyst and synergising effect, to use our influence to pull capital together, not just domestically but, more importantly, internationally.
We'd like to see more international capital coming to Fiji and then into the wider Pacific region.
BSP Life is part of BSP Financial Group, headquartered in Papua New Guinea and present across seven Pacific markets. The ambition of BSP Financial Group is to champion prosperity for the South Pacific through world-class financial products.
Our core financial service is banking, but now we have a growing and influential insurance company that is linked to the banking offering.
At our core, we are from the Pacific, and we are for the Pacific. Everything we do has that ethos of contributing back to the local economies and communities in which we operate.
Back to the international flow of capital: we think Fiji is now in a prime position to attract global capital because the fundamentals of the economy are strong.
Our position as the hub of the South Pacific, a strong national airline with world-class service, a world-class financial system, stability, good ports and well-educated people provide all the ingredients for growth.
We're at this nexus where we can unlock that potential.
We see the influence we can contribute as using the credibility of our execution capability, built up over many years, to help catalyze those opportunities. In some developments, we won't be the majority shareholder; we might be a minority. But we're using our influence to act as an influencer to pull together like-minded investors.
We share capital, we share risk, we share reward, and catalyze opportunity.
We believe foreign investors will flow into Fiji if they see domestic investors growing, as well as domestic investors having a willingness to invite them to partner on credible projects.
8. Beyond tourism, which sectors do you see offering the greatest opportunities for BSP Life's future investments? Are you looking at infrastructure, renewable energy, healthcare, agriculture or other sectors that can support Fiji's economic diversification?
There's a large commercial integrated development we're looking at in the West. Most of it is still in the formative stages, and we're currently looking for global capital.
Your visit is timely. Next week, we're co-hosting a convention for the Pacific Islands Investment Forum, where the heads of superannuation funds across the Pacific are meeting. A platform is being created to mobilize regional capital. We will be putting in front of that audience a project that's ready to kick off next year.
But we're also open to anyone else looking for syndication that is going to spearhead growth in sectors such as renewable energy, forestry, commercial agriculture or anything outside tourism.
Hopefully, those new areas take the cue from what we're discussing now around the syndication model of sharing risk and sharing reward.
For example, if Investor A has $100 million, Investor B has $50 million and Investor C has $50 million, if we're all doing our own projects, that $200 million is spread across different things.
Whereas if you consolidate it, that $200 million can potentially catalyze another $200 million of foreign investment.
Then you're able to do something larger, create a bigger shift in the economy, create more employment, attract larger debt funding, which creates a much bigger multiplier effect.
It's not to say that individual investors don't have their own pipelines. That will always be the case.
But what else can we do together? The ethos of "Stronger Together" starts to drive a new pipeline of investments that complements everything already in the region.
9. Can you tell us more about the development project you're looking at in the West?
It's an integrated development with hospitality, retail, commercial space and a supermarket, all within one integrated zone.
It's novel for Fiji, but it's something you see in major cities around the world. Essentially, it's a one-stop shop offering multiple features.
The reason we feel it's an important space to develop, is that it will complement the offerings we already have in Fiji's tourism sector.
If it works well, it could then be replicated in other parts of Fiji and perhaps the Pacific.
10. Fiji is seeking to attract more international investment and strengthen its position in the Pacific. How can institutions such as BSP Life work alongside international partners, including investors from the United States and other global markets, to bring additional capital and expertise to Fiji?
I think it's an exciting time because Fiji and the South Pacific are at a bit of a crossroads.
There's a huge opportunity to leapfrog where we are now in terms of GDP growth. But because we're small island states, we're vulnerable on our own, and we need to collaborate more.
The collaborative model of syndication isn't just for individual investments. It's about the region positioning itself as an investment block. Then, if the envelope size is large enough, you can attract global capital into the Pacific.
We know that there's global capital looking for new homes, and some of it is linked not only to commercial returns but also to impact objectives: poverty alleviation, climate-change mitigation and renewable energy, for example.
Through the Pacific Islands Investments Forum platform, as it develops, I'm sure it will open itself up to investment discussions with large players in North America and other parts of the world.
11. Looking ahead, what's your long-term vision for BSP Life's role in Fiji and the wider Pacific? How do you see the company balancing its responsibilities to policyholders with its growing role as a major institutional investor and contributor to national development?
There are two parts.
One is BSP Life as an entity of its own. We've spoken about the syndication opportunities that we can create with others.
BSP Life, with the Fiji National Provident Fund, Fijian Holdings and some of our other local institutional investors, can collaborate, bring in foreign capital and develop new industries to complement what we currently have.
That can then spread into the South Pacific through the platform I've mentioned.
There's also BSP Financial Group, of which we're a part. We're already present in seven countries and are the most dominant financial institution in many of those markets.
There's more that we want to do to help elevate the capability of each of those economies.
We often talk about GDP growth of 3% to 5%. Why not aim for 8% growth? There is a lot of untapped potential that can be unlocked through smart investment.
Part of this requires partnering with governments to ensure that the environment being created is conducive to investors. If investors are well looked after, their projects get off the ground quickly and they get good returns, that drives further investments.
12. Finally, what message would you like to share with Los Angeles Times readers about Fiji's investment potential, and why should international investors and businesses be looking more closely at the opportunities emerging across tourism and the wider economy?
The key message is simple: Fiji is open for business.
Often there are windows of opportunity, and this is the time to grasp it. If you procrastinate, that ship might sail, and you'll regret not being on board.
We've been around 150 years and we’re here to stay because we see a lot of potential in Fiji that is still unlocked, as well as across the South Pacific.
The notion of syndication is an open invitation for global capital.
It requires people to be bold and have a spirit of discovery: come out, have a look at what's available and talk to the right people.
I'm sure opportunities will flow on the back of that.
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