SPH to weather Covid-19 crisis, will benefit from investment in data collection

Singapore

SINGAPORE Press Holdings (SPH) said in a business update on Tuesday that its "resilient finances" will withstand the impact of Covid-19.

This comes as it has a resilient balance sheet and takes on a "disciplined approach to capital allocation", with regular reviews of non-core businesses and investments, said SPH, which owns The Business Times.

Its businesses in the media, purpose-built student accommodation and retail segments are also "well-placed" amid the virus outbreak.

In addition, SPH has highlighted that first-party data, which is data collected by SPH directly, is important for the firm to deliver an "enjoyable digital experience" and "make relevant content recommendations" that will translate to higher reader engagement.

While the firm also engages the services of vendors who collect third-party data by embedding their cookies into all of their clients' websites, including SPH's, more browsers are blocking third-party cookies on the back of privacy issues.

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Against such a backdrop, SPH said that it has been investing in its own data collection, processing and activation capabilities in the last few years. As such, they stand to benefit when advertisers that lose access to third-party data turn to publishers with first-party data, it added.

Meanwhile, SPH also announced that its subsidiaries StreetSine Technology Group and StreetSine Singapore have each applied to be placed under judicial management.

But the company said that there will be no material impact on the group's operations for FY2020 given that the subsidiaries are non-core investments.