Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) (SPRM.SI) is eyeing further investments in real estate, in particular shopping malls that will provide recurring income, but media will remain the firm’s core business, its chief financial officer said.

Cash-rich SPH, which has a near monopoly of newspaper publishing in Singapore, has been investing in new areas from outdoor advertising to property to offset falling circulation at its main publications as readers shift to the Internet.

Apartment sales and rental income accounted for a quarter of SPH’s $1.4 billion operating revenue last financial year, and the firm is currently building a mall in a western suburb of Singapore that will open early next year.

“We will continue to look at retail opportunities,” Chief Financial Officer Tony Mallek told Thomson Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “We are still a media company (but) we have a property wing.”

Mallek said SPH preferred malls to residential development because of the recurring revenues. The firm is familiar with retailing, having owned the upmarket Paragon mall along Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping belt since 1997.

“Sometime in the future, we will look outside of Singapore but right now we haven’t,” he added of the firm’s foray into real estate.

SPH, which reports fiscal first quarter earnings on Jan 14, had $461 million in cash at the end of its financial year ended August 2010, up from $299 million a year earlier. 

Its shares are popular with investors as they offer a dividend yield of 6.8% based on the distribution for financial year 2009/2010 -- one of the highest among Singapore-listed blue chips.

Analysts, however, expect dividends will slightly fall in financial year 2010/11 in the absence of earnings from residential development.

SPH’s net profit is forecast to be about $406 million, 18.4% lower than its last financial year that ended in August, based on the average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Of the 17 analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S who cover SPH, 10 have a “hold” recommendation while six are calling a “buy” on the stock. The last analyst has a “sell” call.

Mallek said SPH’s investments in property and other businesses will not affect its ability to maintain its dividend.

“As CFO, I’m aware we are seen as a yield play... If you look back at our track record, we’ve not had problems paying a good dividend,” he said.

He added that the firm should not be regarded by investors as a mature business and cited magazines as a growth business in Singapore and outside the city-state.

“If you go back over the past five to six years, annual turnover has quadrupled from $25 million to $100 million,” he said.

SPH reported a 14% rise in advertising revenue growth in its last fiscal year, helped by a strong recovery in the Singapore economy which is likely to grow by 15% in 2010.

But newspaper circulation continued to fall, with its flagship Straits Times newspaper recording an average circulation of 365,800 in August 2010, down from 374,500 a year ago.