Government-linked SPH, which owns all Singapore's newspapers and is a bellwether for the economy, is scheduled to announce its earnings for fiscal year 1998 after the market close on Friday.

For fiscal year 1997, SPH saw a 11.2-per cent rise in netprofit to Singapore $342.16 million. Turnover rose seven pre cent to S$953 million.

"SPH's results will be a reflection of the macro-picture. For FY98, its core advertising revenue is estimated to fall nine per cent to S$663 million," Goldman Sachs (Singapore) Ltd's analyst Ang Lay Pheng told Reuters.

Ang's earnings forecast for 1998 was S$315 million.

SPH's diversification into mobile telephone operator MobileOne (M1) could surprise on the upside, analysts said.

MI was expected to make a full-year profit of some S$15 to S$20 million in 1998.

M1, a joint venture between SPH,Cable & Wireless, Keppel Telecom and Hong Kong Telecommunications, started operations on April 2, 1997, becoming a rival to Singapore's former monopoly Singapore Telecommunications Ltd.

There was little dispute among analysts that SPH's Singapore Cable Vision (SCV) was unlikely to contribute for now.

Analysts were mixed over whether SPH would need to make any provisions for its Singapore corporate bonds in its investment portfolio, a move which might surprise with lower than expected earnings, depending on the size of the provision.

"If you based it on losses from its associates and its core publishing operations, the net profit is probably going to be about Singapore $310 million," said Merrill Lynch analyst Cheong Kwok Wing.

"That excludes provisions for the Singapore corporate bonds in its investment portfolio. That is a big unknown," Cheong said.

But Cheong said the provision was not a major concern as SPH's core operations were fine.

"I don't think that is a big concern because it is going tobe a non-recurrent figure. It won't cause SPH to be in the red as its core operations seem to be OK," he said.

Goldman's Ang doubted SPH would make major provisions for equity investments or Singapore corporate bonds.

"Their equities have declined to S$100 million or less. They are mostly in Singapore and in the banks. The rest are in Singapore government bonds and US dollar bonds," Ang said.

"Bond yields are going down rather than up. So I don't think in terms of capital writedown, it is going to be significant," she said.

Most analysts had a buy recommendation of the stock based on the group's monopoly, lack of regional exposure, high cash flow and long-term shareholders value creation.

"Overall, the company is still financially sound and cashflow is still strong," said ING Barings analyst Lisa Lee.