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The Reserve Bank of Fiji (RBF) will examine other options available to local equity investment company Fijian Holdings Limited (FHL) before it approves local financing for its $190 million purchase of BP South West Pacific Ltd.
However, RBF governor Savenaca Narube said there were other options being considered by FHL.
The Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) had been approached by FHL to assist in financing its latest multi-million dollar acquisition.
Narube said the RBF, under the Exchange Control policy, would have to approve any of those transactions before it could happen.
Asked whether the acquisition via FNPF’s financing would impact the country’s liquidity situation, he said it would only be if there was an outflow via foreign exchange.
“The FNPF has some funds offshore,” Narube said.
FNPF board chairman Parmesh Chand told FijiLive that FHL had approached the Fund for financing its acquisition.
“FHL has the right to approach any financing institutions they wish to,” Chand said.
“The FNPF is one of the financing institutions and the issue now is that we are exchanging information at this stage but no decisions have been confirmed yet,” he said.
Fijian Holdings Energy Limited (FHEL), a fully–owned subsidiary of FHL, won the bid to acquire BP SWP.
FHL Group general manager Sereana Qoro had said the acquisition would be funded through debt and equity and that the company was talking to local banks.
“We will be looking at a syndicate of banks since it’s too big for one bank to fund (this acquisition) so it has to be a syndicate of banks,” she had told FijiLive.
