Postal services firm Singapore Post (SingPost) yesterday reported a 38.5 per cent surge in net profit for its fiscal second quarter, boosted by divestment gains and continued growth in its logistics and e-commerce businesses.
Net profit amounted to S$53.4 million for the three months ended Sept 30, up from S$38.6 million in the corresponding period a year earlier, SingPost said. Revenue increased 19.4 per cent year-on-year to S$263.2 million.
The nation’s postman said revenue from its traditional mail business dropped by 5.6 per cent year-on-year to S$116.5 million, following the divestment of DataPost. Excluding the impact of the divestment, mail revenue remained stable, said SingPost.
Logistics revenue rose by 43.3 per cent to S$156.1 million on the back of growing contributions from e-commerce activities and the inclusion of new subsidiaries. Revenue from the retail and e-commerce segment was 7.1 per cent higher at S$23.9 million.
SingPost chief executive Wolfgang Baier said the company will continue its push into the two areas of logistics and e-commerce to drive growth. “Mail volumes are coming down domestically and regionally, and we look at other fronts to compensate,” he said.
Last week, SingPost unveiled plans to develop, by mid-2017, a S$150 million e-commerce retail mall, a Singapore first that will combine bricks-and-mortar shops and online shopping.
Other key developments in recent months included Alibaba buying an additional 5 per cent stake in SingPost for S$187.1 million to raise its shareholding to 14.5 per cent. The Chinese e-commerce giant also announced it would invest up to S$92 million for a 34 per cent stake in Quantium Solutions International, a SingPost subsidiary that provides e-commerce logistics in the Asia-Pacific region.
In September, SingPost used a drone to deliver a packet containing a letter and a T-shirt from Lorong Halus to Pulau Ubin in about five minutes.
It said the trial marked the first time a postal service in the world had successfully used an unmanned aerial vehicle for “point-to-point recipient-authenticated mail delivery”.
In October, SingPost entered into conditional agreements to acquire majority stakes in logistics provider Jagged Peak and end-to-end e-commerce firm TradeGlobal Holdings for about S$22.5 million and S$236 million, respectively. “As SingPost continues its transformation to build a strong second wing in the e-commerce logistics space, the focus in the coming months will be on post-merger integration and extracting synergies from its new acquisitions,” the group said.
SingPost shares fell 0.3 per cent to close at S$1.89 yesterday ahead of the results announcement. Angela Teng
