Life and health insurance provider BSP Life recorded its highest-ever bonus allocation of $45.3 million for its policyholders for the 2025 financial year, marking another historic milestone as the company celebrates its 150th year anniversary in Fiji.
BSP Life managing director Michael Nacola made the announcement in Suva yesterday, attributing the achievement to the continued growth seen across all fronts of the insurance business.
In 2025, the insurance provider surpassed the $100m mark for the first time in its premium income; its investment portfolio comprising eight asset classes delivered an investment income of around $93m; and a new record of 28 per cent growth in sales of standard products that also surpassed $18m for the first time.
“Our highest-ever (bonus allocation) was in 2024, prior to this, at $43.8m. So we’re continuing that upward trajectory,” Mr Nacola said.
“So the performance of all those various drivers I’ve spoken about culminate in the bonus allocation that we declare once we’ve completed the audit of our financial statements, and then it finds its way through the payouts that we do to the policies as they hit the interval payment stage or final maturity stage.”
Mr Nacola said at BSP Life, they had ensured their investment portfolio were balanced and diversified to ensure a shock to one asset class was offset by the other asset classes.
“The asset class that delivered the best for us was our private equity class, and in there we have Oceania Hospitals, we also have our investment with FNPF (Fiji National Provident Fund) at Rooster, and we also have the investment in the Sofitel (Fiji Resort & Spa),” he said in response to a question from this newspaper.
“And the Sofitel was the star performer in 2025. There was a period during COVID where that asset was impacted because of obvious reasons, and other assets performed really well during that period to offset the low returns coming from Sofitel; and post the borders opening, Sofitel has performed extremely well for us. Some other asset classes aren’t performing as well as we’d like, but the upside from Sofitel is offsetting some of those declines, so that’s the beauty of having a balanced and diversified portfolio, because whenever there’s a shock to one asset class, you still can deliver good value from the others.”
Mr Nacola added sustaining consistent bonuses depended on the financial performance of the business, with a large dependency on the returns it received from its $1.25 billion investment portfolio.
BSP Life chief investment officer Craig Strong said their strength is in diversity in the portfolio that allowed the institution to continually deliver.
“We’re continually working on initiatives and potential investments that will secure that sustainability over the lifetime for our policyholders,” Mr Strong said.
