Looks like it is always good to read from various sources. From
littlespeck:
SIA
Half full or half empty
ST proves there are different ways to present a story. By Seah
Chiang New.
Feb 4, 2006
Singapore Airlines has just announced its latest quarter result,
and the foreign media covers it as follows: -
Bloomberg
Singapore Airlines' 3rd-Qtr Profit Falls 15% on Fuel
Singapore Airlines Ltd., the world's second-largest carrier by
market value, said profit fell for a fourth straight quarter
because of an increase in fuel prices.
Net income dropped 15 percent to S$397 million ($243 million), or
32.5 cents a share, in the third quarter ended Dec 31, from a
restated S$465 million, or 38.1 cents a share, a year earlier,
Singapore Airlines said today
Chief Executive Chew Choon Seng, whose term has been extended for
three more years, raised surcharges and hedged the airline's oil
needs to protect it from a 25 percent rise in the price of jet
fuel, its single-biggest expense.
The carrier, which has been cutting costs, faces competition by
Emirates, Qantas Airways Ltd. and budget airlines including AirAsia
Bhd.
Dow Jones
Singapore Airlines Ltd Thursday said high fuel costs offset rising
revenue for a 14.6% decline in net profit for the fiscal third
quarter.
SIA, the world's second biggest airline by market capitalisation
after US discount carrier Southwest Airlines, recorded net profit
of S$396.6 million for the three months ended Dec 31, compared with
S$464.6 million a year earlier.
Revenue rose 11.1% to S$3.56 billion from S$3.2 billion a year
earlier, on strong passenger traffic during the year-end holiday
period.
But increases in expenditure, due mostly to a sharp rise in jet
fuel prices, outpaced revenue growth. Expenditure in the third
quarter grew 14.1% to S$3.18 billion from S$2.79 billion a year
earlier.
But the Strait Times angles it quite differently: -
Feb 3, 2006
SIA soars on the back of record 4 billion passengers
Quarterly results beat expectations, despite sky-high jet fuel
prices
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) has soared above market expectations with
its latest quarterly profit results.
The airline also carried a record number of 4.36 billion passengers
and posted its highest ever turnover for any quarter in the three
months to Dec 31 last year, its financial third quarter.
This strong showing by one of Singapore's most important blue chip
companies came despite jet fuel prices hitting sky-high
levels.
Then finally on the 5th paragraph, the crux emerges...
These fuel prices dramatically increased SIA's costs, dragging net
profits down by 14.6 per cent to $397 million compared to the same
period a year earlier, its fourth straight quarterly fall.
The contrast between the foreign and local coverage is quite stark.
What are holders of SIA shares to make of it? Are the results are
good or bad.
Is the paper trying to paper the quarter profit decline behind a
RA..RA.. angle? Sure looks that way!
Nothing wrong in the ST report, but it has to be careful not to
come across as a newspaper that reports only the good and avoids
or plays down the bad.
Its important for the media to hold or regain credibility of its
readers, without which it cannot help sweeten the ground for the
government.
About the time another Straits Times headline proclaimed, Jobless
rate down to 2.5% - the lowest in four year.
If readers believe this, then well and good, if not, theyll start
looking for Bloomberg and Dow Jones versions to find out what they
may have missed.
