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Dec 31, 2010
SPH eyes more mall investments

But media remains its core business, says finance chief

SINGAPORE Press Holdings (SPH) is eyeing further investments in real estate, in particular shopping malls that will provide recurring income, but media will remain the firm's core business, its chief financial officer said.

Cash-rich SPH, which has a dominant position in newspaper publishing in Singapore, has been investing in new areas, from outdoor advertising to property.

Apartment sales and rental income accounted for a quarter of SPH's $1.4 billion operating revenue last financial year, and the company is currently building a mall in Clementi that will open early next year.

'We will continue to look at retail opportunities,' Mr Tony Mallek told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. 'We are still a media company (but) we have a property wing.'

Mr Mallek said SPH preferred malls to residential development because of the recurring revenues.

The company is familiar with retailing, having owned the upmarket Paragon mall in Singapore's Orchard Road shopping belt since 1997.

'Some time in the future, we will look outside of Singapore, but right now we haven't,' he added of the company's foray into real estate.

SPH, which will report fiscal first quarter earnings on Jan 14, had $461 million in cash at the end of its financial year ended August 2010, up from $299 million a year earlier.

Its shares are popular with investors as they offer a dividend yield of 6.8 per cent based on the distribution for financial year 2009/2010 - one of the highest among Singapore-listed blue chips.

Analysts, however, expect dividends will fall slightly in financial year 2010/2011 in the absence of earnings from residential development.

SPH's net profit is forecast to be about $406 million, 18.4 per cent lower than its last financial year that ended in August, based on the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Of the 17 analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S who cover SPH, 10 have a 'hold' recommendation while six are calling a 'buy' on the stock. The last analyst has a 'sell' call.

Mr Mallek said that the company's investments in property and other businesses will not affect its ability to maintain its dividend.

'As CFO, I'm aware we are seen as a yield play... If you look back at our track record, we've not had problems paying a good dividend,' he said.

He added that the company should not be regarded by investors as a mature business and cited magazines as a growth business in Singapore and outside the city state.

'If you go back over the past five to six years, annual turnover has quadrupled from $25 million to $100 million,' he said.

SPH, which publishes The Straits Times, reported a 14 per cent rise in advertising revenue growth in its last fiscal year, helped by a strong recovery in the Singapore economy which is likely to grow by 15 per cent this year.

REUTERS

From OCBC Research:

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) delivered its 1Q11 results with revenue of S$318.7m (-10.0% YoY) and net profit of S$102.3m (-29.3% YoY). The decline was attributed to the absence of revenue recognition from Sky@eleven, which was completed in May 10. Excluding this, the group’s comparable revenue grew 12.3% YoY, while recurring earnings improved by 6.6%. SPH’s 1Q11 performance was driven by broad-based revenue growth across all segments. Going forward, we expect its performance to be supported by stronger advertising demand alongside Singapore’s economic growth and improving consumer confidence, as well as contributions from Clementi Mall, which is slated for official opening in Apr 11. Our earnings projections and S$4.59 fair value estimate remain intact. Dividend yield is attractive at ~6%. We maintain our BUY rating on SPH
This weekend's Edge mentions that SPH has a stake in Perenial's (spelling) Chinatown re-development...
revenue growth is because they increase price, not necessarily more sales volume...
Notice that property developers are back taking full pages of ads in the paper. On the other hand, it seems that some others are scaling back their ads after CNY.
Source: CNA Forum


Shareholders of SPH should raise this issue in coming AGM.



RC Chairman, Mr Raymond Teoh of Hong Kong Mistress Saga removed?

Last week, Temasek Review carried an article detailing how a Toa Payoh East Zone 6 Residential Committee Chairman, Mr Raymond Teoh, dumped his Hong Kong mistress after making her pregnant twice.

Sindy Wong, the mistress, then took revenge by uploading several intimate pictures of her with Raymond Teoh onto her facebook for all to see [TR Article: Grassroots organisation Chairman dumped pregnant mistress].

Since then, there has been new and interesting development. According to the latest updates from Sindy Wong’s facebook, Raymond Teoh sent her a SMS calling her a “whore who worked at a nightclub” and threatened to tell everyone in Singapore. Ms Wong asked for evidence and countered on her facebook, “May I ask, did you ever pay me any money after we had sex every time? Did you ever give me any living allowance?”

Ms Wong further disclosed that during the time when Raymond Teoh was an Assistant Vice President at SPH, every time he went to Hong Kong, he would forged invoices to make fake claims cheating the company. Each time, he would forge three invoices amounting to HK$5,000. They were mainly for lunch and dinner expenses. Should SPH neeedd verification, Ms Wong said that she is willing to come forward and testify.

From Sindy Wong’s facebook:

Quote:


各位朋友,我剛收到張淡金先生的一個短信,他說我是在夜總會裡做工,我是一個妓女,明天新加坡所有人都會知道,你有証據就拿出來吧?你以為這像樣做就能掩飾你的罪行嗎?請問你每次和我做愛後有沒有付錢給我,你有沒有給我生活費?你是要我把你所有的罪行公諸於世嗎?你還在SPH公司工作期間,每次來香港,偽造虛假發票,欺騙公司資金,每次三張一共是大約HKD$5000,均是午餐及晚餐的費用,公司定必有記錄,若SPH公司需要察証可聯絡本人,張淡金先生多謝你再一次誣陷及傷害我,下次你應該說我是從事非法買賣,黑社會人物…….送你一句話:你去死吧….沒人牲,自私自利………………..




After the release of the news by Temasek Review about Raymond Teoh, it is interesting to note that the website of Toa Payoh South Community Club no longer lists Mr Raymond Teoh as its Toa Payoh East Zone 6 Residential Committee Chairman. The new Chairman now is a person by the name of Joseph Foo Joon Aik [Link]. The term of office was stated as from 1 Feb 2011 to 31 Jan 2013 and this new information on the website was updated on 3 Mar 2011, 3 days after Temasek Review broke the news on the 28 Feb. It was not known if Mr Raymond Teoh had resigned much earlier before the news or resigned/was told to resign when the news broke.

Mr Raymond Teoh’s last known employment was the General Manager of property portal propertyguru.com.sg which he left at the end of November 2010.

In any case, Lianhe Wanbao reported on 6 Mar that Ms Wong would be coming to Singapore next week to have a press conference in Singapore. It will be interesting to hear if she discloses any further misdeeds by the ex-RC Chairman.

.

Audrey Sim

hi, just curious why this issue is important enough to be raised in AGM? can shade some lights? thanks.
So that the management will have better control over their staff's claims on expenses especially with fraudulent invoices/bills. Believe this guy is not alone.
I did some analysis on SPH thinking its worth a re-look. My analysis is here

SPH Analysis


At the end of the day the Clementi Mall looks an expensive buy, but now SPH is moving as a leverage REIT play.
Results are out. Net profit down about 31.7% excluding Sky@Eleven. Balance Sheet remains highly leveraged.

Cash flows look healthy, though why they classify payment of dividends as operating activities is beyond me!

7 cents interim dividend, same as last year.

(Not vested)