SingPost slashes dividend as e-commerce unit keeps bleeding

Singapore

POSTAL and e-commerce group Singapore Post has cut its interim dividend by a third in a bid to keep payouts sustainable, as postal margins slipped and its e-commerce segment continued to operate at a loss ahead of the peak year-end shopping season.

The group proposed an interim dividend per share of one Singapore cent for the quarter ended Sept 30, 2016, down from 1.5 cents previously, adding in a statement that domestic mail volumes were dropping and that it would pay its quarterly dividends out of its underlying earnings from now on.