Singapore Post

IIRC, this is a 1st in Singapore...

SingPost issues new stamps featuring greetings in sign language

SINGAPORE — Postage stamps enthusiasts in Singapore can soon lay their hands on a set of new stamps featuring greetings in sign language.

To be released tomorrow (June 17), the series of five stamps will show in sign language: “Hi”, “Welcome”, “Thanks”, “Goodbye” and “I Love You”.

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/sin...n-language

Someone told me that it is not necessary to have postage stamp when sending letters to government agencies, is this true?

I don't know but I will not be surprised it was true during the time when postal service was a public service, you know, when the police wore shorts. It could be considered as an internal despatch.

Meanwhile, I am thinking of the impact when more people opt for online delivery of shareholder materials. No more recurring income from delivery of bulky annual reports. Just another chipping away of the main mail delivery business that investors come to expect. Nowadays, how many investors bother to own odd lots of many companies just to receive their annual reports? Selling these odd lots at the end of one's life cost minimum of $25 per counter. No cost conscious investor will do that anymore.

And this is a very different singpost today than that which had existed when the policemen were in shorts.

Those days, it was doing basically handling the posting of letters and parcels and selling of postages. Today it has gone into mail, logistics and retail businesses. http://singpost.com/corporate-informatio...esses.html

If it had just stuck to its basic business, I think the share price and dividends might be a different story totally.

SingPost’s Q1 profit down 2% on higher expenses

SINGAPORE — Singapore Post said Friday its fiscal first-quarter net profit slid 2 per cent to S$37.3 million despite a surge in revenue, due to higher expenses from the integration of new subsidiaries, developmental costs for new businesses and trade-related foreign exchange fluctuations.

Revenue rose 32.8 per cent to S$201.3 million.

Domestic mail volume continued to fall for the seventh consecutive quarter, but overall turnover was boosted by contributions from new subsidiaries, growth in international e-commerce packages, and growth in rental income from SingPost Centre.

http://www.todayonline.com/business/sing...r-expenses

net profits keeps sliding down... really is dying business... still worth buying for the yield?

I think there are better yield alternatives around - even REITs should be better preservation of value (not withstanding financial engineering for some).

(03-08-2013, 10:23 AM)felixleong Wrote: net profits keeps sliding down... really is dying business... still worth buying for the yield?

i think they held profits and the dividends looks better supported. but look at the logistics div. so much revenue yet so little profit.

mail have been overwhelmingly high margin. it will take alot to replace that. i wonder if it will be better investing in online cash flow generating business overseas.

It's has been 4 years since singpost go big into logistic, but the margin is still dismal. If u believe they can deliver in their logistic arm, then it's worth it. Iirc, at its best, logistic margin for a quarter is 18. If they can sustain this kinda of margin for logistic in the future. Then wow..

Company run by business consultants now. Rest assured that there will be convincing stories to justify whatever new businesses or acquisitions. Company only report earnings once a quarter and so many things can happen within a quarter. Can surely find enough reasons or excuses that are due to no fault of management to justify the low / no earnings growth. To bookworm, S Post is better for case studies than for investment.