SingPost's Q4 net profit down 51.6% on lower fair-value gain

Singapore Post (SingPost) on Tuesday posted a 51.6 per cent fall in net profit from S$79.6 million a year ago to S$38.5 million for its fourth quarter ended March 31, 2015.

The decrease was due to SingPost changing in the quarter its accounting policy for investment properties from the cost model to the fair value model to improve transparency. Net profit now includes fair value reporting of investment properties; fair value gains for the quarter fell 88.4 per cent from S$44.5 million a year ago to S$5.2 million.

Underlying net profit, which excludes the fair value gains and other one-off items, grew 14.9 per cent to S$41.1 million for the quarter.

Revenue rose 28.7 per cent from S$193.3 million to S$248.1 million, boosted by SingPost's e-commerce and logistics businesses as well as contributions from new acquisitions.

Earnings per share was 1.625 Singapore cents for the quarter and 6.849 Singapore cents for the full year. The company recommended a final dividend of 2.5 Singapore cents per share which will be paid on July 24, 2015. SingPost's total dividends for the year come up to 6.25 Singapore cents a share.