Singapore Post (SingPost) has reported revenue growth of 8.6%, with sales of S$1.46bn (US$1bn) for the financial year ending March 31, 2018.
The increase has been attributed to growth in e-commerce-related activities across the postal and logistics segments.
Net profit rose 278% to S$126m (US$94m), largely due to the absence of one-off impairment charges. Excluding exceptional items, underlying net profit declined 9.2% to S$105m (US$79m). While the e-commerce and property segments saw improved performance, logistics and postal operating profits fell.
For the fourth quarter, revenue grew 13.5% to S$367.5m (US$276m) and net profit improved to S$23.9m (US$18m) from a loss of S$65.2m (US$49m), which reflected impairment charges in exceptional items.
Operating profit, excluding exceptional items, improved 18%. Lower contributions from associates and increased tax provision however resulted in underlying net profit for the quarter declining 28.6% to S$15.3m (US$12m).
Paul Coutts, group CEO, SingPost, said, “The company 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.
“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 USA and Southeast Asia, as well as the rest of our overseas operations, and optimizing the cost structure of the SingPost Group.”