On Feb. 1, the CEO of national postal agency Singapore Post (SingPost), Paul Coutts, shared that the company's third quarter financial results are impressive.

"It has been an exceptional quarter, with strong performance across the group, other than the US which remains challenging," he said.

An interim dividend of 0.5 cent per ordinary share will be paid at the end of this month.

Gain from stake dilution

SingPost's net profit rose almost 16 percent year-on-year and this was attributed to a gain from selling its stake in logistics firm 4PX to a current stakeholder of the China-based company.

SingPost also saw a net profit of S$50.2 million for the last quarter of 2018.

This was an increase of 15.6 percent as compared to the previous year.

Excluding exceptional items, SingPost's net profit of S$32.9 million was actually 7.5 percent lower as compared to the previous year.

The revenue was S$441.4 million, a 7.6 percent increase due to strong performance across all business segments during e-commerce peak season.

US businesses making losses

However, the profit on operating activities fell 8.5 percent to S$42.2 million as a result of the losses made at SingPost's US e-commerce businesses.

Despite having high volumes during festive seasons, the costs to support the volumes have also increased significantly.

The US businesses are expected to make losses this financial year with intensifying competition and rising customer bankruptcies.

SingPost's profit on operating activities from property also increased to 18.2 percent, mostly contributed by the rental income from its retail mall, SingPost Centre, with high committed occupancy of 99 percent as at the end of 2018.

IMDA investigation

The national postal agency has recently been embroiled in a series of high-profile lapses in its local postage service.

The most recent incident involved undelivered mail found thrown away in Ang Mo Kio, which prompted Info-communications Media Development Authority (IMDA) to investigate.

IMDA expressed “grave concerns” and that it takes a “serious view” of any incident that impacts the reliability, integrity and security of Singapore’s public postal services.

Top photo collage from SingPost and SingPost Custcare Facebook page

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