SPH net profit down 1.2% to $53.5m

Display and classified ads caused the decline.

Singapore Press Holdings reported a 1.2% decline in net profit in its 2Q17 which ended in March.

According to UOB KayHian, the group saw a $11.7m one-off gain from disposal of investments. This pushed the headline net profit up to $53.3m. Excluding one-off items, core net profit was $39.4m, down 19.6%.

The weakness came from the 16-19% drop in display and classified ad revenues due to lower demand.

Meanwhile, circulation revenue remained stable at $39.6m, as the decline in print subscriptions was offset by the increases in digital subscriptions.

Here's more from UOB KayHian:

SPH’s key media segment is expected to remain weak, reflecting the lacklustre Singapore economy. All 12 trade segments in Singapore remained weak, with no particular trade segment leading the decline. The weakness is expected to persist. Diversification into other business segments has not yet been able to supplant earnings from SPH’s traditional media business, and is not expected to happen in the near term.

Interim dividend cut a possible hint at strains in cash flow. We understand from management that the interim cut was to soften the percentage decline in its final dividend. More notable was that the interim dividend cut was also in part due to the lower cash flows generated from the media business. Assuming the media’s business decline accelerates, cash flow reduction could translate to sharper-than-expected cuts in dividend.

Reaching the people who run Asia's businesses is harder than it used to be.

Inboxes are crowded. Attention is short. The executives you most want to reach — the founders, CFOs, and operators who actually move budgets — are the hardest to find through the usual channels. If you're building a company, a category, or a reputation, you already know this.

We've spent twenty years building the room they read. Singapore Business Review is where senior decision makers in Singapore and across Southeast Asia come for business coverage they can't get elsewhere — in print, online, and in person at the summits and roundtables we host across seven markets.

If you have something these readers should know about — a point of view worth publishing, a product worth their attention, an event worth their time — we'd like to hear what you're trying to do.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia