Don't think I need to elaborate on the latest SPH saga as majority of the nation should know by now what has happened. If still don't know what's going on, just go to any social media network and you can read it up all you can.
After the saga, I browsed through my blog and found I actually have 2 posts on SPH. One was SPH -- A No No No For Me......... on 21st Sep 2017 and the other SPH -- All Times Low Since 1998 !!! on 28th Jul 2019. Well looking at both the titles, can tell none of those posts are of anything good on SPH.
The most interesting one was the post in 2017, yes almost 4 years ago when the share price then was still above $2.50 and now as of 7th May 2021 closing, the share price was $1.52, more than $1 different in the wrong direction. In that 2017 posts, I quoted 4 main fundamental reasons for not investing in SPH (Management Team, Monopoly Business, Quality of Business and Diversifying in Business) and looking at what has happened in SPH now, could hardly say I wasn't spot on then.
Management Team
Don't think I'm the only one in this nation who questioned the quality and qualification of the CEO to fill in that role. Last time people talk about IQ being one of the quality for successfully people and now it has became EQ. EQ is the ability to understand, use and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges and defuse conflict. Looking at the action of the CEO at the saga, do I actually need to explicitly detail out how good his EQ is ? EQ is not measured by how many Master degrees you are holding or which Ivy league university you have attended for sure. What's the point of having so many Master degrees when they are actually Master of Failure, Master of Born Loser and Master of None. haha !!!
Monopoly Business
Many might be surprised why I put Monopoly Business as one of the fundamental factor in 2017. Hey, monopoly business means sure revenue and profit unless you have totally no customers right. For me to put monopoly business down as one of the key fundamental reason is because I've looked wider than that. Now, SPH decides to spin off the media business to a non-profitable entity fully justified my point back in 2017.
Quality of Business
The saga origins from the "U" word right ? What made the "U" word splashing out like the water being splashed out from the Merlion's mouth was none other than independence of the newspaper. That's the quality of business I was referring to in 2017. As a public listed company, the quality is already being put into question and now with spinning off that further put pressure on it.
Diversifying in Business
In the 2017 post, I wrote "if such diversification is to be used mainly to offset the loss of its main business unit then fundamentally, the company or corporation is not right already." That statement was referring to SPH investment into property (retail, healthcare, student accommodation, etc). Now with the media business being spin-off, what's left of SPH is nothing but a "property" company. Is SPH a property developer like Capitaland, City Development, UOL, Keppel Land or even Ho Bee ? Unfortunately no, SPH doesn't build any property. Even if it intends to do so going forward, how it can compete with those heavy weights ? Singapore is a small nation with limited property spaces. Those property heavy weights all have diversifying business outside Singapore. SPH move ? If it is not a property developer then is it a Reits ? If its function like a reits, its doesn't have a strong sponsor like those of Capitaland reits, Ascenadas reits, Mapletree reits and Frasers reits. What's make it attractive enough for investors to invest in ? So what's is it now with its business strategy in property sector ?
"GOOD LUCK", that the only word I can say to those long term retail investors in Singapore Press Holdings or is it Singapore Property Holdings ?
Guess the friend that I advised to cut loss in 2017 must surely have to treat me liao :)
