SINGAPORE: SingPost earned a total profit of S$126.4 million in the last financial year, according to results released on Friday (May 11).
The increase in net profit by 278.4 per cent in the financial year of 2017/18 ending Mar 31 is largely due to the "absence of one-off impairment charges", said the release.
AdvertisementExcluding exceptional items, underlying net profit declined by 9.2 per cent to S$105 million. The e-commerce and property segments improved while operating profits for the logistics and postal segments fell.
By Mar 31, SingPost recorded a revenue increase of 8.6 per cent to S$1.46 billion, driven by e-commerce activities across the postal and logistics segments, SingPost said.
SingPost's rental and property-related income rose by 29.9 per cent on higher rental income from SingPost Centre, which has an occupancy of 95.6 per cent.
The annual dividend for the year was 3.5 cents per share after the final dividend of 2 cents per share was recommended by its board of directors.
AdvertisementAdvertisementFree cash flow for the year grew to S$136.1 million from S$300,000 in the previous year due to reduced capital expenditure following the completion of the Regional eCommerce Logistics Hub and the SingPost Centre mall.
REVENUE GROWTH FROM E-COMMERCE
Postal and logistics revenue went up by 15 per cent and 4.3 per cent respectively due to higher e-commerce deliveries.
Logistics revenue had also gone up due to increased freight forwarding volumes.
Operating profit declined by 4 per cent with a change in margin mix. SingPost said that the margins were "impacted by continued investment in the business and pricing pressures in North Asia".
Despite the loss of two major customers in the previous year, SingPost's e-commerce revenue accelerated by 15.7 per cent in the fourth quarter. Operating loss was also reduced by more than 50 per cent on "improved performance due to TradeGlobal's turnaround business plan".
“SingPost is well positioned to benefit from the strong growth in global eCommerce and last-mile deliveries as we progress to the next phase of our strategy," said group CEO Paul Coutts.
"We continue to execute on our transformation and build on our partnership with Alibaba in eCommerce. We are integrating and scaling our eCommerce businesses in the US and Southeast Asia, as well as the rest of our overseas operations, and optimising the cost structure of the SingPost Group.”
FOURTH QUARTER RESULTS
During the fourth quarter ended Mar 31, SingPost's revenue grew 13.5 per cent to S$367.5 million. Its net profit attributable to equity holders improved to S$23.9 million from a loss of S$65.2 million, which "reflected impairment charges in exceptional items", SingPost said.
Operating profit - excluding exceptional items - improved by 18 per cent while lower contributions from associates and increased tax provision resulted in underlying net profit for the quarter declining by 28.6 per cent to S$15.3 million.
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