Pos Malaysia Bhd’s net profit for its first quarter ended June 30, 2016 grew 40% to RM31.84mil, from RM22.74mil a year ago, despite operating in the current challenging environment, said group chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh.
The increase was due to higher profits generated from its courier segment that was driven by demand from its e-commerce and online businesses. First quarter revenue rose to RM415.87mil from RM390.37mil a year earlier.
Shukrie said Pos Malaysia is focussing to transform itself into a one-stop fully integrated logistics services provider through the recently approved and soon-to-be-completed corporate exercise of acquiring Kuala Lumpur Airport Services Sdn Bhd (KLAS) group of companies.
The company will also introduce more new 24/7 e-commerce convenient touch points when it unveils a slew of new services. The company will also enhance facilities at all Pos Laju Centres and post offices nationwide. It is planning a total of 110 more touch points from the current total of 1,030 throughout Malaysia by end of 2016, Shukrie said.
In a separate Bursa filing yesterday, the company said its courier segment registered higher revenue of RM162.8mil in the first quarter of this year compared with RM148.1mil a year ago.
The upward performance was driven by increase in demand from e-commerce, the company said. Its postal services segment registered lower revenue of RM206.7mil in the first quarter of 2016 compared with RM230.6mil a year ago.
“This is due to lower revenue for direct mail for mail segment and decrease of transactions from bill payment for retail segment,” Pos Malaysia said.
Its international segment registered lower revenue by RM16.4mil as compared to RM36.1mil a year earlier due to lower transactions from transhipment business segment.
Meanwhile, Pos Malaysia’s other segments which consist of digital certificates, printing and insertion registered higher revenue by RM7.8mil in the first quarter of this year due to higher business volume attributed to sales of digital certificates, as well as printing and insertion.
Going forward, the company said its longer term prospects remain closely tied to the growth in the fulfilment and delivery of merchandise arising from the growth of e-commerce.
“Investments by global e-commerce giants into the South-East Asia’s e-commerce players, for example the acquisition of Lazada by Alibaba, support the growth and development of the industry in the region.”