WiseVest - SPH starts its overseas acquisitions

Singapore's leading integrated publishing and media company, Singapore Press Holdings announced its purchase of the public advertising unit of TOM Group, a Hong Kong listed company controlled by Li Ka-Shing. In the deal, SPH is set to take a 35% stake in TOM Outdoor Media Group by investing US$26 million. TOM Group will still hold the other 65% within the company. The Outdoor Media Group of TOM operates billboard advertising area of around 300,000 sq.m across 60 cities in China. The deal marks SPH's foray into regional advertising and with its existing customer base, it will also be able to gain synergies in this initial acquisition.

With its divestment of the free to air television network last year, SPH is hard pressed to look for new avenues of growth to expand its business and it has marked the move towards outdoor advertising through its 80% stake in SPH MediaBoxOffice. On top of that, with the expected increase in job advertising, SPH also launched its new job search website last weekend. The recent moves made by the company seems to be in the right direction, warranting interest in this stock.