Singapore Post (SingPost) swung back into the black for its fiscal fourth quarter, booking profit of $23.9 million in the absence of one-off impairment charges in the corresponding period last year.
Revenue for the three months to March 31 was also up 13.5 per cent to $367.5 million on growth in e-commerce-related activities across its postal and logistics segments, SingPost said. Earnings per share were up to 0.9 cent from a loss per share of 3.03 cents last year.
For the full year ended March 31, SingPost booked a profit of $126.4 million on the back of $1.46 billion in revenue.
The board recommended a final dividend of two cents per share to be paid out on July 31.
For the fourth quarter last year, SingPost was hit with an impairment charge of $208.6 million related largely to the TradeGlobal and Postea acquisitions, as well as a property in Toh Guan, which SingPost highlighted was partially offset by a fair value gain on investment properties of $108.7 million, mainly for the SingPost Centre building.
The postal segment’s revenue rose 18.2 per cent in the quarter and 15 per cent for the full year as strong growth in international mail revenue helped offset the decline in domestic mail revenue, SingPost said.
Domestic mail revenue declined 6.6 per cent for the full year to $229.4 million, due to lower letter mail volumes with the “continued migration” towards electronic forms of communication.
Revenue for SingPost’s e-commerce segment rose 15.7 per cent in the fourth quarter to $65.31 million, and was stable for the full year.
“SingPost is well positioned to benefit from the strong growth in global e-commerce and last-mile deliveries as we progress to the next phase of our strategy,” said group chief executive Paul Coutts. “We continue to execute on our transformation and build on our partnership with Alibaba in e-commerce. We are integrating and scaling our e-commerce businesses in the United States and South-east Asia, as well as the rest of our overseas operations, and optimising the cost structure of the SingPost group.”