A long-serving finance and investment executive has announced his retirement from one of the country’s leading companies.

BSP Life outgoing chief investments officer, Pramesh Sharma, will retire on August 31, 2021.

He is on leave and with his family in New Zealand.

It follows his acquittal on a charge of indecently annoying a female.

“After some serious soul searching and deep thinking, especially looking at my family circumstances, as a priority, I have eventually decided to retire from BSP Life at the end of this month,” Mr Sharma said.

“This decision has been very tough for me and my family as we are so passionate about the BSP Life family and the entity.

“Some of my family members tell me that I’m more married to BSP Life than Susan.”

He was part of the founding executive team of BSP Life, following the takeover from Colonial Fiji Life Insurance, in late 2010.

40 years in the field

BSP Life’s managing director, Michael Nacola, said Mr Sharma spearheaded value creation through the organisation’s investments portfolio growth.

“When BSP Life took over, our investment portfolio was around $374 million,” Mr Nacola said.

“In just over 10 years, we have grown close to $850 million, more than doubling our investment portfolio size, which is testament to Pramesh’s leadership, business acumen and strong external networks, with the support of a strong team.

Background

In December, 2008, Mr Sharma joined Colonial Fiji Life Limited, as the general manager investments.

His extensive experience in the financial services industry prior to joining Colonial Fiji Life Insurance, equipped him well for his role, Mr Nacola said.

“Under his dynamic leadership, our investment portfolio has grown to become the second largest fund in Fiji, second only to the Fiji National Provident Fund,” Mr Nacola said.

“The investment portfolio is balanced, diversified and showed great resilience in 2020 at the height of COVID-19, continuing to grow despite the reduction in Fiji’s GDP and its ensuing economic impacts.

“The resilience of our investment portfolio allowed us to deliver a record bonus allocation to our policyholders for 2020.

“We maintained our bonus rates at the same level as 2019, which had been increased after nine years.

“As returns from other investment funds decreased, we maintained, which is a show of our financial and operational strength and the credibility of our investment portfolio.”

Board membership

According to Mr Nacola, Mr Sharma had a hands-on involvement in private equities, namely the:

• private hospital,
• Rooster business, and
• Sofitel.

Mr Nacola said Mr Sharma’s involvement in private equities helped support the turnaround of businesses from underperforming assets, to businesses with strong growth potential.

Mr Sharma served on the boards of:

• Oceania Hospitals Pte Ltd,
• Future Farms Limited,
• Suva Private, and
• Richmond Limited.

He previously held chairman roles and served on boards of other private and state-owned enterprises.

“He was renowned as an active mover-and-shaker in investment circles.

“He was visionary and made sound investment decisions, ensuring that policyholders’ funds were invested well to derive good returns.”

Mr Sharma represented Fiji in lawn bowls, and later became involved in administration of the sport.

In his 12 years with Colonial and BSP Life, Mr Sharma proved himself a committed leader, said Mr Nacola.

“He developed his teams well;and leaves the investments division in good stead,” Mr Nacola said.

Feedback: frederica.elbourne@fijisun.com.fj