SINGAPORE, 11 July 2018 – Singapore Press Holdings Limited’s (SPH) third quarter net profit attributable to shareholders rose 64.3% to $47.4 million compared with the same period a year ago. This was due to lower impairment charges, the Group said in the results announcement for the third quarter ended 31 May 2018 (3Q 2018) today.
Group operating revenue of $250.1 million for 3Q 2018 was $9.9 million or 3.8% lower year-on-year (“y-o-y”), compared with 3Q 2017.
Group recurring earnings or operating profit grew 29.6% to $44.4 million, an overall rebound from the same quarter last year. This was despite Media business revenue declining $14.6 million or 8% to $167.9 million for 3Q 2018.
Revenue for the Property segment was slightly lower, declining 2.4% to $60.1 million y-o-y. It is the largest segment in the Group by profit, which accounts for close to 60% of the Group’s profit. It has continued to provide a steady income stream and stability to SPH’s financial performance.
Operational Highlights :The Group continues to face its digital challenges head on, while making key management appointments to boost its “First to Digital” initiatives, as it seeks to aggressively grow digital revenue.
SPH’s promotional efforts in the quarter had good results, as daily average digital circulation copies increased by 121,000 copies from 3Q 2017 to 3Q 2018. Going forward, SPH will continue with more promotions.
The E-paper (PDF version of the print paper) is also seeing good readership with more than 37,000 unique readers just on The Straits Time alone – this is more than 15% of total ST circulations. SPH will continue to promote E-paper readership and add new exciting features, while improving its understanding of print readership with valuable data analytics
On the digital advertisement front, SPH’s total digital ad revenue is showing good growth and momentum, responding well to the challenge from digital disruptors. The new SMX platform, a data-driven programmatic ad exchange that started operating on 8 May, has been gaining momentum in reaching the Singapore digital population
MACD & RSI are rising and may likely provide further indication for price to continue to head higher.
Breaking out of $2.80 with ease + high volume that may propel to drive the price higher towards $2.90 then $2.94 with extension to $3.00 and above.
Not a call to buy or sell.
Please do your own due diligence.
Hi Sporeshare, SPH is not out of the woods yet. I still see that for 3Q18 on a y-o-y basis, it's core business in Media continues to experience a decline of 8% in operating revenue. It's property business also faces a marginal decline of 2.4% in operating revenue. Only the others segment saw a sharp jump in operating revenue of 38.5%. As a result, the overall operating revenue saw a marginal decline of 4%. It's YTD 3Q results also showed a similar trend in all the business segments. However, I got to admit that the decline in revenue for core Media business is lesser now.(jeremyowtaip)
The reason for sharp increase in net profit attributable to shareholders of 64.3% can be traced to a few items. The first is that most of the operating costs have been reduced. I read in one of their notes that staff costs have been reduced due to lesser bonuses given out. I can see that there were some efforts to reduce their operating costs.
Another item which contributed was the decrease in impairment of goodwill and intangibles y-o-y. I take this as a one-off accounting change on their goodwill and intangibles which coincidentally and opportunistically has benefited them on their income statement since a lesser impairment was taken y-o-y. However, such accounting measure may not be suggestive that the actual performance of their business segments have really improved.
Another item which contributed was the sharp increase in net income from investments. There were disposal of investments which booked in better profits from their disposals y-o-y. I see this as an opportunistic way to make some profits in order to boost their profitability further. Again, this is not suggestive that their businesses have improved. I can only say that they time their disposal of investments well to book in some profits to raise their profitability.
All in, they did well to make their income statement look good with a sharp jump in net profit attributable to shareholders. However, their actual operating revenue from core Media business still faces decline and drags the overall revenue lower albeit at a less extent now.
In conclusion, my opinion is only neutral and not excited with this current set of financial results. Things are getting better for them but they are still not out of the woods yet. Maybe see next quarter whether things further improve or deteriorate. As of now, I can only say that they have managed to pull together a good show in their income statement to paint the picture that profitability has improved sharply.
Singapore Press Holdings Limited, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a media company in Singapore and internationally. It operates through three segments: Media, Property, and Treasury and Investment. The company offers daily newspapers and student weeklies; publishes, produces, and distributes books; publishes and produces approximately 80 magazine titles in the areas of lifestyle and information technology, as well as operates various online sites; and provides digital advertising services. It also operates other media initiatives, such as AsiaOne, Stomp, zaobao.sg, and zaobao.com Websites; and online marketplace for jobs, property, cars, and general classifieds; radio channels, including Kiss92 and ONE FM91.3 in English; SPH Buzz, a retail convenience chain; and UFM100.3, a Chinese radio station; financial portals; and Web search portals that offers property data and analysis. In addition, the company provides online investor relations, management support, editorial, fund management, business management and consultancy, online marketing, public relations, news reporting, technical, software consultancy, online classifieds, and other services, as well as multimedia contents and services. Further, it organizes consumer and trade events, exhibitions, conferences, and conventions; owns and operates nursing homes; develops e-commerce applications; franchises kiosks to third party operators; and licenses copyrights, trademarks, and software. Additionally, the company is involved in computer programming activity for online investor relations and related business; holding, developing, managing, and letting properties, as well as provision of property management services; holding investments; and managing shopping centers. Singapore Press Holdings Limited was incorporated in 1984 and is based in Singapore.
No comments:
Post a Comment