Star Media Group Berhad

Star Media Group Berhad, the Petaling Jaya-based publisher of The Star, Malaysia’s largest-circulating English-language newspaper, reported revenue of RM208.3 million (US$ 51.5 million) for the year ended 31 December 2025, down 15.9% from RM247.6 million (US$ 61.2 million) in 2024. The group reported a net loss of RM4.3 million (US$ 1.1 million), compared with a profit of RM66.8 million a year earlier. The year-on-year swing is heavily affected by a non-recurring item in 2024: RM55.0 million (US$ 13.6 million) of compensation awarded from the out-of-court settlement with JAKS Resources. On a simple normalised basis, removing that 2024 item reduces FY2024 pre-tax profit from RM68.2 million to about RM13.2 million (US$ 3.3 million). FY2025 pre-tax profit was RM1.5 million (US$ 0.4 million); if the RM4.1 million (US$ 1.0 million) gain on the disposal of an investment property is also excluded, the group would show a small pre-tax loss of about RM2.6 million (US$ 0.6 million).

The more important number in this filing is not the loss. It is the fact that Star Media Group ended the year with RM359 million (US$ 88.7 million) in cash and money-market funds, no significant debt, and a property portfolio whose disclosed fair value is roughly RM256 million (US$ 63 million) higher than what the books show. Plain English: this is a company that, on paper, looks like a struggling newspaper publisher, but in cash and real estate holds substantial economic value. Cash and short-term funds plus the disclosed fair value of investment properties total RM788.8 million (US$ 194.9 million), exceeding the group’s reported total assets of RM733.7 million (US$ 181.3 million) because the investment properties are carried on the balance sheet at depreciated cost rather than fair value. This is an economic-value comparison, not an accounting one, but it is the comparison that matters when thinking about what the company is actually worth. And the reason it matters comes down to who owns it.

Star Media Group: key financial indicators, FY2024 vs FY2025

Source: Star Media Group Berhad, audited Annual Report 2025 (year ended 31 December 2025), filed under registration number 196101000523. Audited by BDO PLT under Malaysian Financial Reporting Standards, IFRS Accounting Standards and the Companies Act 2016; the audit opinion is unqualified (“true and fair view”) and was signed on 25 March 2026 by Tan Seong Yuh for BDO PLT. The Annual Report was issued on 17 April 2026. The investment property fair value of RM429.8 million is disclosed in Note 6 of the audited accounts; the company is required to disclose this market valuation but is permitted to carry the assets at cost less depreciation on the balance sheet. The company is listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia (stock code STAR/6084). US dollar equivalents are convenience translations of the audited Malaysian ringgit figures at the Bank Negara Malaysia reference closing rate on 31 December 2025 of 1 USD = 4.0471 MYR (equivalent to 1 MYR = 0.24709 USD); they are presented for international comparability only and are not figures that appear in the audited accounts.

The company traces its history to 9 September 1971, when The Star was launched as a regional English-language newspaper in Penang. It went national from Kuala Lumpur in 1976 and is now Malaysia’s largest-circulating English daily. Star Media Group Berhad itself is the listed holding company; the operating businesses sit in wholly-owned subsidiaries covering print, digital, radio (988 in Chinese and Suria in Malay), property development, events, awards and conferences. The current group structure is the result of a long de-internationalisation: in 2017 Star sold its 52.51% stake in the Singapore-listed events and exhibition company Cityneon Holdings for about RM360 million, and most overseas subsidiaries are now inactive shells in the process of being wound up.

Star Media Group: ownership structure

Source: Register of Substantial Shareholders and Top 30 Shareholders, both as at 31 March 2026, disclosed on pages 228–230 of the Annual Report 2025. Percentages are computed on 724,764,902 issued shares, excluding 13,798,700 shares held in treasury. MCA’s indirect interest is held via Huaren Holdings Sdn Bhd (36,756,900 shares) and Huaren Management Sdn Bhd (200,000 shares); both are deemed-interest holdings under Section 8 of the Companies Act 2016. None of the seven Star Media Group directors holds any shares in the company, directly or indirectly.

Signals

A political party controls nearly half the voting shares

The single most important fact about Star Media Group is not in the financial statements. The largest shareholder, with 48.33% of the voting shares between its direct holding and the stakes held through Huaren Holdings and Huaren Management, is the Malaysian Chinese Association, a political party. MCA was a founding member of the Barisan Nasional coalition that governed Malaysia continuously from independence in 1957 until losing power in the 2018 general election; today it is a much-diminished force in Malaysian politics, with only one parliamentary seat. The Star has been effectively controlled by MCA since 1977. The Edge reported that Huaren Holdings, MCA’s investment arm, collected approximately RM270.7 million in dividends from this single shareholding between 1997 and 2007. In January 2026, just before the company’s Annual Report was published, MCA topped up its position by buying another 172,000 shares through Huaren Holdings, a small purchase, but a public signal that the party is still consolidating rather than reducing its stake.

What this means in practical terms is that The Star is one of a small number of national newspapers anywhere in the world where the largest shareholder is a political party. It also means that the dividend the board is recommending for 2025, 1.5 sen per share, or roughly RM10.9 million (US$ 2.7 million) in total cash going out, will, by virtue of that 48.33% holding, send about RM5.3 million (US$ 1.3 million) directly or indirectly to MCA.

The “operating” newspaper business is small; the balance sheet is mostly cash and property

Of Star Media Group’s RM733.7 million (US$ 181.3 million) of total assets, the Print, Digital and Events segment accounts for RM479.1 million of segment assets but generates RM162.2 million in revenue, meaning roughly two-thirds of the group’s reported assets sit in the segment that does most of the media work. The larger items on the balance sheet, however, are the liquid and real-estate ones: RM359.0 million (US$ 88.7 million) of cash and money-market funds, and RM174.3 million (US$ 43.1 million) of investment properties carried at depreciated cost. The fair market value of those investment properties is RM429.8 million (US$ 106.2 million), meaning there is an unrecognised gain of approximately RM255.5 million (US$ 63.1 million) sitting in real estate that does not appear in either the income statement or the equity line. Together, cash plus the fair value of investment properties equal RM788.8 million (US$ 194.9 million), more than the company’s entire stated total assets, and well above its full year-end equity of RM678.6 million (US$ 167.7 million).

The properties supporting this real-estate value sit principally in Malaysia: Petaling Jaya (the 17-storey Menara Star headquarters, on the books at RM28.2 million but acquired or last revalued in 2001), Bukit Jelutong and Shah Alam (the printing plant and adjacent industrial land), George Town and Bayan Lepas (offices and industrial buildings on Penang), Bukit Minyak (warehouses on Penang), Putrajaya, Ipoh, Genting (vacant agricultural land) and Kota Kinabalu, with a single overseas residential property at Randolph Avenue, London W9 (carried at RM523,000), and a single floor in International Plaza, Singapore (RM1.1 million). The balance sheet value is driven disproportionately by cash, short-term funds and real estate; the media operations remain strategically central, but no longer explain most of the group’s underlying asset value.

Revenue declined for two specific reasons

The 16% drop in revenue is explained almost entirely by two segments. First, advertising spending across the Malaysian print and digital industry contracted by 27% during 2025, which the directors attribute to general economic weakness and to the announcement of US trade tariffs in April 2025 that introduced uncertainty into domestic ad budgets. The Star‘s Print, Digital and Events segment fell 9% to RM162.2 million (US$ 40.1 million), meaningfully less than the industry, but still down. Second, the property development segment fell 46% to RM24.9 million (US$ 6.2 million), but that decline was scheduled rather than unexpected: it reflects the completion of the Star Business Hub industrial development project in Bukit Jelutong, where the final progress billings were recognised during the year. By the end of 2025 four of the five units had been sold, with the last sold in Q1 2026 and completion expected in Q2 2026.

Within radio, the two stations diverged sharply. 988, the group’s Chinese-language station, grew revenue 6%, helped by a strong Chinese New Year advertising period and by the two-day After Work Fest concert in Penang in July, which drew, by the group’s own claim, 100,000 to 150,000 visitors. Suria, the Malay-language station, fell 19%, attributed to soft festive-period advertising and intense pricing competition from other Malay-language broadcasters.

Costs are coming down, but slowly

Group operating costs fell 4% to RM135.3 million. The directors highlight three specific initiatives: lighting upgrades and individual energy meters that cut utilities costs by 6%, broader adoption of artificial-intelligence tools to improve workflow efficiency, and tighter procurement. Working against these efforts: medical and insurance costs rose 28% on the back of medical inflation in Malaysia, and the company is investing in cybersecurity infrastructure following a maturity assessment carried out by Deloitte. A Data Protection Officer was appointed in 2025 to comply with the amended Personal Data Protection Act.

The bigger structural point, and one the company does not say out loud, is that for a media business with RM208 million (US$ 51.5 million) of revenue, an operating cost base of RM135 million (US$ 33.4 million) leaves very little margin. The balance sheet value is driven disproportionately by cash, short-term funds and real estate; the media operations remain strategically central, but no longer explain most of the group’s underlying asset value.

What to watch in 2026

First, the MCA stake. The party has spent the past three years quietly buying more shares in small parcels, every few months a few hundred thousand at a time, well below the level that would require a takeover offer. If the cumulative direct interest moves above 50%, MCA passes the threshold of majority control, which under Malaysian listing rules has consequences for shareholder approvals. The combined direct-plus-indirect stake is already 48.33%; the path to 50% direct ownership is short.

Second, the property portfolio. The new industrial development planned for Bukit Jelutong, subject to regulatory approval, is the company’s next major real-estate cash conversion event. Star Business Hub’s completion in April 2025 worked: four of five units sold during construction. A second project would extend the pattern of using legacy land bank to generate development income. Conversely, the company sold the small Bintang Cottage property in Cameron Highlands in October 2025 for RM5.0 million (US$ 1.2 million), recognising a RM4.1 million (US$ 1.0 million) gain over book value — a reminder that smaller pieces of the portfolio are being trimmed.

Third, the digital subscriptions strategy. The 11% lift in daily new digital registrations through The Star‘s partnership with the Google News Initiative, and the 470% increase in Gen Z viewership the company claims for the same partnership, are the operational numbers the chief executive most emphasised. The strategic question is whether The Star can monetise a digital readership at a scale that offsets the structural decline of print advertising, which fell 27% as an industry in 2025. Without that pivot, the company’s media operations become progressively less viable, and Star Media Group becomes, in substance, even if not in name, a property and asset-management vehicle with a newspaper attached.