PNG's Kina Bank now an ASX financial star
Papua New Guinea's third largest deposit taker - Kina Bank - continues as the standout performer among ASX-listed banking stocks despite a bout of frenetic selling that hit the sector on Tuesday.The PNG Bank, which is listed on the Australian bourse as Kina Securities, defied the negative sentiment that swept through the market yesterday after announcing that the Asian Development Bank had taken a substantial equity position in the company.Through a special share placement, the ADB acquired 10.7 million shares in the bank worth US$10 million, which equates to around 5 per cent of the company.The announcement triggered a rally in the share price, which touched a record intra-day high of $1.53.Kina scrip closed up 10.5 cents to $1.49, taking its accumulated gains for the calendar year to 56 per cent. The S&P/ASX Financials index has climbed only 3 per cent over the same period.Kina bank acquired most of ANZ's commercial banking operation in PNG last year and is moving aggressively to take on Westpac and Bank South Pacific in small business lending."Kina will use the funds to continue to grow its SME and retail segment and build its digital capabilities enabling Kina to offer broader product mix including trade finance products to SMEs," said Kina CEO, Greg Pawson.While lucky Kina shareholders such as Perpetual continue to swoon over the PNG bank's stellar growth and stratospheric net interest margin of 5 percent, investors in other ASX-listed banks last night were tending to more wounds.Bank of Queensland shareholders were among the biggest losers, including the institutions who paid the heavily discounted price of $7.78 a share in a placement completed last week.BoQ, which is losing customers in the mortgage market, fell 2.5 per cent to $7.53 - its lowest closing price in almost seven years.More than 7 million BoQ shares were traded on Tuesday, which is more than double the average daily volume for the stock.Trading in the major banks was less deep, but nonetheless exceeded the average daily volumes for the past 12 months.Commonwealth Bank copped the biggest pasting of the majors, closing down $2.09 or 2.5 per cent to $79.34. NAB fell 1.8 per cent to $25.43. The Melbourne based bank's share price is under pressure partly because of the Westpac AML saga, which has highlighted the risks for banks under-disclosing ineffective monitoring and reporting processes.Although NAB disclosed a contingent liability for non-compliance with AML laws in 2017, documents supplied to the Hayne Royal Commission reveal a wide gap between what the bank's directors knew was wrong and what they have since disclosed to shareholders and prospective investors.