SINGAPORE - Singapore Press Holdings' media business that is faced with slides in print advertisement and circulation revenue took centre stage at Friday's shareholders' meeting as investors grilled its chief executive on whether that ought to prompt a strategic rethink of its core activity.
Some shareholders asked if SPH should cut back its investments in the media business and focus instead on its more promising income-generating sources, such as property. One shareholder pressed the point, arguing that if SPH was in the media space out of"national service", then it should do so while keeping cost to the minimum.
Mr Ng, who earlier acknowledged the unhappiness voiced by shareholders over the weakness in the media business, assured investors that the group has a plan in place to"fix" the decline in that segment. Innovative products such as the news tablet has led to a healthy uptick in the digital side of the business, while cost is being kept under control.
For that reason too, he said the group was"spending a lot of time to grow the non-media" business. The upside of that has been evident with property income in FY19 at a record high, more than offsetting media decline. The property division - SPH's largest profit segment - posted a 39 per cent jump in pre-tax profit to S$263 million in FY19.
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