SingPost sinks into the red with $65.2m loss

Blame the impairments for TradeGlobal.

It was a disappointing quarter for Singapore Post after it swung to a net loss of $65.2m in Q4 of its financial year 2017, impacted by a $205.7m impairment of intangible assets mainly for TradeGlobal and offset by $108.7m fair value gains in investment properties.

According to OCBC Investment Research, excluding these one-off items, underlying net profit was $21.4m. This would have brought full year underlying net profit to $115.6m, lower than the $153.6m net profit last year.

Here's more from OCBC Investment Research:

On a segmental basis, the postal division saw a 4.2% decline in operating profit to S$150.7m in FY17, while logistics saw a 39.2% drop to S$23.6m. eCommerce incurred an operating loss of S$33.8m vs. S$7.3m in FY16.

The overall landscape is competitive, while eCommerce also met a setback in TradeGlobal, which lost key customers. In the fast-moving world of eCommerce, it is currently unclear to us if this segment can turn in a net profit by FY19.

On a positive note, the new SPC mall will open up in phases from Sep this year. We will also be monitoring the improvement in volumes from the collaboration with Alibaba.