Broker's take: Selling of SPH shares overdone, says OCBC

ANALYSTS from OCBC Investment research are saying that the selling of Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) shares is overdone.

Since its downgrading of the stock's rating to "sell" on July 18 last year, the counter has declined 19 per cent.

SPH announced on Wednesday that together with its JV partner Kajima, it was awarded the HDB tender for a 99-year leasehold site in the Bidadari Estate at Upper Serangoon Rd for S$1.132 billion.

While the consortium's bid was deemed to be bullish by the market, OCBC analysts noted that it was only 1.1 per cent higher than the second highest bidder. They believe the project will likely be accretive, particularly given improved sentiment in the domestic residential sector.

Given the uncertain economic outlook and the continuing disruption of the media industry, they expect conditions to remain challenging for the group's media business.

They updated their model with the latest acquisition and weaker media assumptions, and their fair value estimate slips further to S$3.34.