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.