Singapore Mainboard-listed Popular Holdings is strengthening its music retail business with two recent moves that may see it spend a total of S$800,000 (US$460,000). In separate filings with the Singapore Exchange, the company announced that it will buy into homegrown music site Vivamusic.com and Hong Kong-based audio-video Internet retailer eNet Digital Pacific Ltd.

Two-year-old Vivamusic sells, distributes and syndicates music and entertainment content, as well as music-related merchandise via various media, including the Internet. Popular Holdings will subscribe up to 51 percent of the issued ordinary shares in Vivamusic for an aggregate consideration of S$500,000 (US$290,000), the statement read.

eNet, incorporated in Hong Kong SAR, is in the business of retailing audio and video products via the Internet - a business that Popular Holdings views as complementary to its own existing music retail chain in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong known as CD Rama.

Popular Holdings is to acquire all issued and paid-up capital of eNet for a cash consideration of HK$1.33 million (US$170,000), an amount assessed to be the approximate cost for Popular Holdings to start up a business similar to eNet's.

Both transactions will be funded through "internally generated sources" and are not expected to have any material impact on the company's net tangible assets and earnings per share for the current financial year ending April 30, 2001, it said.