Brokers' Choice

UOB KAY HIAN TURNS MORE BULLISH ON SPH

UOB Kay Hian has raised its target price for Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) from $5 to $5.40, following strong growth in advertising spending over the past two months.

'Our page-counts of The Straits Times in January and February indicate a strong advertising volume growth of 9.8 per cent,' it says.

It has also raised the projected advertising revenue growth for SPH for this year and next year from 5 per cent to 7 per cent, as it expects the uptrend to continue.

'Accordingly, we have raised the projected net profits for FY06 by 3.4 per cent to $410.8 million, for FY07 by 5.4 per cent to $446 million, and for FY08 by 5.6 per cent to $466 million,' it says.

UOB Kay Hian also expects SPH's high dividend yield of 4.5 per cent to lend support to its share price. SPH closed two cents higher at $4.48 on a turnover of 5.5 million shares last
Friday. \-- UOB KAY HIAN, March 1
Rating: BUY