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CLARIFICATION

In yesterday’s Samoa News story headlined “Homeland Security, Justice Department reviews foreign purchase of Bluesky.” it stated that the “72.6% of ATH’s shares is held by the government owned Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF)”.

Samoa News should point out that it used the term, “government owned”, to summarize the following information that was included in the ATH-Bluesky joint petition to the FCC: “FNPF’s seven directors are appointed by the Minister of Finance of the Fiji government,” and, the “Fiji government currently holds an approximate 17.3 percent equity and voting interest in ATH.”

FNFP’s public relations officer Risiate Biudole said in an email yesterday afternoon that Samoa News was “erroneous” in identifying FNPF as government owned, and said FNPF “is a self-funding defined contribution fund, that looks after the retirement savings of about 403,000 members. It is governed by the FNPF Act 2011.”

The joint petition also summarizes the background of FNFP, which identifies it as a “superannuation fund with assets exceeding FJ $5 billion that collects compulsory contributions from private sector and public sector employees and employers to provide retirement benefits to Fiji workers, and it provides other financial services to members.”