The launch later in the year of a free tabloid called Today by rival Media Corp of Singapore (MCS) was unlikely to dent SPH's share of the advertising pie, Goldman Sachs said in its November report.

SPH publishes the flagship English daily the Straits Times and the Chinese-language Lianhe Zaobao as well as Malay and Tamil newspapers.

Singapore liberalised the media industry earlier this year.

"Advertisers and media buyers are finding Today's rate card too expensive, particularly given its target audience of low-income commuters," Goldman Sachs said.

The editorial team of Today would also find it difficult to match the resources built by SPH over the years and the strength of its editorial team of close to 1000 journalists, the report said.

MCS was granted a publishing licence earlier this year and will launch Today together with listed subway operator Singapore Mass Rapid Transit Transport.

SPH, backed by cash reserves of S$1.7 billion, launched two new newspapers, Streats and Project Eyeball, to head off the competition.

The Singapore publisher will also launch two television units - one in English and Malay and the other in Chinese - and Goldman Sachs said this would allow the company to leverage on its core competency in news reporting.

"Although the cost of entrance to the TV market is significantly higher than the cost of publishing a tabloid, the opportunity to carve out advertising market share is also disproportionately higher," it said.

The bank said SPH's revenues were expected to grow 15 per cent in the financial year ending August 2002, as revenues from its new ventures grew.

The group recently reported a full-year net profit of S$397.5 million for the 2000 financial year, up 22 per cent from the previous year.

It said the double-digit earnings growth was due to the rise in advertising revenue to a 10-year high of S$804.3 million, from S$611.6 million previously.