Singapore's SPH expands international reach

Singapore's SPH expands international reach

Associated Press, Singapore

Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), the country's main media group, has announced plans to buy a slew of regional magazines for S$32.9 million (US$19.3 million) to bolster its ambitions to expand internationally.

The media group said it would acquire several titles - including Nuyou, Torque, and The Peak - from Blu Inc., a diversified Singapore-listed company, Singapore Press Holdings said in statement to the Singapore Stock Exchange released on late Tuesday.

The magazines are sold throughout East Asia, SPH said in its statement without naming the other publications. The deal should be finalized in September, it said.

Singapore Press Holdings, which has a near monopoly on newspaper publishing in Singapore, already produces several magazine titles, including Her World, the island's top selling magazine, which is also published through joint ventures in Malaysia, Thailand and China.

In 2002, SPH struck a deal with China's state-controlled news agency, Xinhua, to supply news to a Shanghai daily newspaper in what it described as an "unprecedented" tie-up.

Its main Chinese-language newspaper, Lianhe Zaobao, also started printing an Indonesian edition this month.

SPH's newspaper titles are supportive of the long-ruling People's Action Party, and the government determines who controls the group.