Singapore Press Holdings ("SPH")

The SPH chart looks downright ugly this week after it announced its Q2 results which was below expectations. The run-up in the prior month was due to the announcement of a REIT but that has soon fizzled out post the results announcement.

I have bought this stock for a few years already and has received $680 worth of dividends since i started tracking my SRS account so technically if i less off the dividends from my cost, my investment cost is "reduced" to $3,088. 

 The Company announced an interim dividend of 7c per share which will be paid on 23 May 2013.

The Company is facing a few "crisis" of sorts where the property cooling measures and the car cooling measures is giving it a double whammy as advertising revenues will decline. This coupled with strong competition from alternative media such as website and free newspaper will continue to make it challenging for SPH.

SPH has no choice but to expand into new media such as the recent acquisition of online sgcarmart and i don't think the acquisition is "cheap" at all. 

In my view, the Company should quickly spin out its property assets and distribute the units in specie to shareholders and let the REIT has a life of its own to create more value for shareholders. At this juncture, while the intention is announced, no timeline was given.

The Company is currently trading at a valuation of LTM PE multiple of 21x and is over-valued. In any case, i will continue to hold on to the stock since i have only 1 lot for now but i may not rule out cashing out of this counter when it trades beyond its fundamental value next time or after i receive my dividend.

After accounting for the recent price decline, the portfolio is still up by around 19%, so perhaps a diversified portfolio is useful. This is how the SRS portfolio looks at this juncture.

Happy SRSing