Latest news with #SingPost
New Paper
2 days ago
- Business
- New Paper
SingPost puts 10 HDB shophouses up for sale and leaseback
Singapore Post has put up for sale 10 Housing Board (HDB) shophouses currently occupied by its post office outlets across Singapore, with the aim of leasing them back. A spokesperson said in response to queries from The Straits Times: "SingPost is initiating the divestment of 10 HDB shophouses across Singapore, in keeping with the group's plan to divest non-core assets. "Plans are for a sale and leaseback model to maintain current post office services." In a sale and leaseback model, an asset is sold to someone else, but then leased back to the initial owner for a certain duration. This occurs especially when the asset can be sold at a higher value than its initial purchase price. It can also allow the seller to raise capital from the proceeds of the sale, without interrupting its business operations. SingPost said in May that its strategic review and restructuring are ongoing. Its group chief financial officer Isaac Mah told the media at a briefing then that the company is engaging the Government to develop a more sustainable operating model, as the post office network is not profitable. SingPost has 42 post offices, of which it owns 21. As part of its efforts to restructure, it also sold its Australian logistics business, Freight Management Holdings (FMH). SingPost completed the sale of FMH for A$1.02 billion (S$853 million) in March. The group has also taken steps to sharpen its focus on its core postal and logistics business, including streamlining its operations to right-size the cost base, it said. In 2024, SingPost said that it is considering selling its flagship retail-commercial mixed development SingPost Centre at Paya Lebar Central, which it also identified as a non-core asset. The SingPost Centre was valued at $1.1 billion as at September 2023. Maybank analyst Jarick Seet said SingPost's sale and leaseback bid for the 10 HDB shophouses is "not a new thing". "In their announcements in 2024, SingPost has said that it wants to monetise its assets and reduce postal centres because there has been a drop in usage," he told ST. In 2024, it was reported that SingPost closed 12 post offices, or one out of five branches, in the last two years. This was due to declining mail volumes, as people turn to electronic means instead. It also said that letter mail and printed paper volumes in Singapore fell 8.1 per cent on the year to 87.8 million items, from 95.6 million items. But Mr Seet noted that SingPost may also not be allowed to close so many post offices rapidly as people in the various districts still need to use them, which makes the sale and leaseback model a compromise as it can still free up capital without disrupting services. The gains from the sales could also be used to revitalise SingPost's local business, and ultimately be returned to shareholders, he said. SingPost is already investing $30 million in a new automation system to expand processing capacity for small parcels at the regional e-commerce logistics hub facility. In May, it also announced a special dividend of nine cents per share after it booked a net exceptional gain of $222.2 million, largely from the divestment of its Australian business. Mr Seet reiterated his call to "buy" the stock. "SingPost owns lots of assets that hold intrinsic value like the HDB shophouses, which are now worth much more than what they were bought for. The same goes for SingPost Centre," he said. "If we add the value of all these assets up, it is much more than the market cap of the company today. So SingPost is undervalued, but it depends on the company to unlock value this way." SingPost shares closed at 57 cents on June 19, up nearly 0.9 per cent from its previous close of 56.5 cents.
Straits Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Straits Times
SingPost puts 10 HDB shophouses up for sale and leaseback
Plans are for a sale and leaseback model to maintain current post office services, said SingPost. ST PHOTO: TARYN NG SINGAPORE - Singapore Post has put up for sale 10 Housing Board (HDB) shophouses currently occupied by its post office outlets across Singapore, with the aim of leasing them back. A spokesperson said in response to queries from The Straits Times: 'SingPost is initiating the divestment of 10 HDB shophouses across Singapore, in keeping with the group's plan to divest non-core assets. 'Plans are for a sale and leaseback model to maintain current post office services.' In a sale and leaseback model, an asset is sold to someone else, but then leased back to the initial owner for a certain duration. This occurs especially when the asset can be sold at a higher value than its initial purchase price. It can also allow the seller to raise capital from the proceeds of the sale, without interrupting its business operations. SingPost said in May that its strategic review and restructuring are ongoing. Its group chief financial officer Isaac Mah told the media at a briefing then that the company is engaging the Government to develop a more sustainable operating model, as the post office network is not profitable. SingPost has 42 post offices, of which it owns 21. As part of its efforts to restructure, it also sold its Australian logistics business, Freight Management Holdings (FMH). SingPost completed the sale of FMH for A$1.02 billion (S$853 million) in March. The group has also taken steps to sharpen its focus on its core postal and logistics business, including streamlining its operations to right-size the cost base, it said. In 2024, SingPost said that it is considering selling its flagship retail-commercial mixed development SingPost Centre at Paya Lebar Central, which it also identified as a non-core asset. The SingPost Centre was valued at $1.1 billion as at September 2023. Maybank analyst Jarick Seet said SingPost's sale and leaseback bid for the 10 HDB shophouses is 'not a new thing'. 'In their announcements in 2024, SingPost has said that it wants to monetise its assets and reduce postal centres because there has been a drop in usage,' he told ST. In 2024, it was reported that SingPost closed 12 post offices, or one out of five branches, in the last two years. This was due to declining mail volumes, as people turn to electronic means instead. It also said that letter mail and printed paper volumes in Singapore fell 8.1 per cent on the year to 87.8 million items, from 95.6 million items. But Mr Seet noted that SingPost may also not be allowed to close so many post offices rapidly as people in the various districts still need to use them, which makes the sale and leaseback model a compromise as it can still free up capital without disrupting services. The gains from the sales could also be used to revitalise SingPost's local business, and ultimately be returned to shareholders, he said. SingPost is already investing $30 million in a new automation system to expand processing capacity for small parcels at the regional e-commerce logistics hub facility. In May, it also announced a special dividend of nine cents per share after it booked a net exceptional gain of $222.2 million, largely from the divestment of its Australian business. Mr Seet reiterated his call to 'buy' the stock. 'SingPost owns lots of assets that hold intrinsic value like the HDB shophouses, which are now worth much more than what they were bought for. The same goes for SingPost Centre,' he said. 'If we add the value of all these assets up, it is much more than the market cap of the company today. So SingPost is undervalued, but it depends on the company to unlock value this way.' SingPost shares closed at 57 cents on June 19, up nearly 0.9 per cent from its previous close of 56.5 cents. Sue-Ann Tan is a business correspondent at The Straits Times covering capital markets and sustainable finance. Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Business Times
02-06-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Should SingPost stop delivering letters?
MY APOLOGIES to arborists, but every two weeks, I make a disgruntled trek from my mailbox to the nearest rubbish bin. Directly from box to bin goes not just unsolicited flotsam – property agents' fridge magnets and handyman's flyers – but legitimate mail that I simply don't need in hard copy, like dividend statements, utility bills and government missives. Come next year, the Danes will be spared these mailbox-rubbish bin sojourns because Denmark's state-run postal service, PostNord, will no longer deliver letters. Instead, it will start phasing out the nation's 1,500 post boxes this month and focus on delivering parcels. This isn't a seismic development – since the turn of the century, Denmark has seen a 90 per cent decline in letter volumes. Even so, those who prefer to send a ransom letter the old-fashioned way still can, since the nation's letter market was opened up to private firms last year. Laidback kidnappers aside, fewer people are posting letters, globally. In Singapore, total domestic mail volume fell more than 40 per cent from 2020 to 2024. The overseas travails of our national postal service, Singapore Post (SingPost), are confounding, but there is some low-hanging fruit on the domestic front. Today, SingPost's post office network remains unprofitable, while operating profit from its local postal and logistics segment is down. So, it wouldn't be unfathomable for SingPost to get out of the local letter business entirely, given Singapore's high rate of technology adoption and a national system that has digitally consolidated the vital government services that citizens need. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Currently, nationalisation has been ruled out, but tweaking the postal network and raising postal rates remain options. If rates are merely marginally raised, though, it would be challenging to strike a balance between the resulting fall in letter delivery demand and other costs that might not fall proportionately. SingPost's monopoly on basic mail services ended in 2007, and perhaps, other private players might be better equipped to sustainably price or subsidise local letter delivery. But if moving bits of paper around the country is financially or logistically unviable no matter which company attempts it, then this service should be treated like a public good and be funded publicly, or cease entirely. Truly important bits of paper could still be couriered like parcels and priced accordingly. When that happens, I suspect that many businesses will reconsider the need for hard-copy documents in a hurry. 'When a letter costs 29 Danish krone (S$5.69) there will be fewer letters,' PostNord Denmark's managing director said earlier this year. Indubitably, this change will require drastically reshaping SingPost's obligations as a public postal licensee. It would be a timely opportunity to re-examine what constitutes critical infrastructure in 2025. One might find that this nexus of national security has moved on to other infrastructure such as fibre-optic subsea cables and semiconductor plants. Consider how most of us were notified of Covid-19 vaccinations during the pandemic. During that pathogen-laden time, touching your mailbox would actually have been counter-productive. There is every chance that this measure might not adequately move the needle on the larger scale of SingPost's woes. If that were the case, that would also be instructive. For if the albatross and mispricing of letter delivery are not the biggest of SingPost's problems, it probably has other bigger and more intractable ones.
New Paper
31-05-2025
- General
- New Paper
New stamp series showcases critically endangered native coastal plants in Singapore
The sea trumpet tree and queen coralbead vine are among four species featured in a new set of stamps that showcase critically endangered native coastal plants. The stamp series - the result of a tie-up between Singapore Post (SingPost) and the National Parks Board (NParks) - aims to shine a light on Singapore's unique natural heritage and the urgent need for conservation, the two agencies said in a joint statement on May 30. The series also comes just in time for the Festival of Biodiversity, which will be held at the Plaza in the National Library Building, from May 31 to June 1, the statement added. The stamps, valued at between 52 cents and $2 each, can be bought at all post offices, on the SingPost website, and philatelic stores from May 30. They will also be sold at the festival. Apart from the sea trumpet and queen coralbead, the stamps feature the Ormocarpum cochinchinense tree and Ficus stricta, a type of strangling fig tree. The four plant species are recognisable by their striking ornamental flowers, fruits and foliage, and are part of the NParks' Species Recovery Programme, which aims to secure the long-term survival of rare and endangered native flora. The latest series is titled Critically Endangered Flora Of Singapore - Flora Of Coastal Forests, and is the last of three stamp series to showcase endangered plant species in Singapore. The 2024 series highlighted the critically endangered native flora of Singapore's tropical lowland rainforests, which include the two-fold velvet bean climber, tiger's betel, the squirrel's jack and the Kadsura scandens. All four plants can be found in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Central Catchment Nature Reserve, said NParks. In 2023, four critically endangered native floral species from Singapore's swamp forests were featured on stamps: the lipstick plant, Singapore Kopsia, red Salak, and Fagraea splendens. They were found or rediscovered in the Nee Soon Swamp Forest, which is the only remaining primary freshwater swamp forest in Singapore.
Straits Times
30-05-2025
- General
- Straits Times
New stamp series showcases critically endangered native coastal plants in Singapore
The four plant species are recognisable by their striking ornamental flowers, fruits and foliage. PHOTO: SINGPOST AND NPARKS SINGAPORE – The sea trumpet tree and queen coralbead vine are among four species featured in a new set of stamps that showcase critically endangered native coastal plants. The stamp series – the result of a tie-up between Singapore Post (SingPost) and the National Parks Board (NParks) – aims to shine a light on Singapore's unique natural heritage and the urgent need for conservation, the two agencies said in a joint statement on May 30. The series also comes just in time for the Festival of Biodiversity, which will be held at the Plaza in the National Library Building, from May 31 to June 1 , the statement added . The stamps, valued at between 52 cents and $2 each , can be bought at all post offices, on the SingPost website, and philatelic stores from May 30 . They will also be sold at the festival. Apart from the sea trumpet and queen coralbead, the stamps feature the Ormocarpum cochinchinense tree and Ficus stricta, a type of strangling fig tree. The four plant species are recognisable by their striking ornamental flowers, fruits and foliage, and are part of the NParks Species Recovery Programme, which aims to secure the long-term survival of rare and endangered native flora. The latest series is titled Critically Endangered Flora Of Singapore – Flora Of Coastal Forest, and is the last of three stamp series to showcase endangered plant species in Singapore. The 2024 series highlighted the critically endangered native flora of Singapore's tropical lowland rainforests, which include the two-fold velvet bean climber, tiger's betel, the squirrel's jack and the Kadsura scandens. All four plants can be found in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Central Catchment Nature Reserve, said NParks. In 2023, four critically endangered native floral species from Singapore's swamp forests were featured on stamps: the lipstick plant, Singapore Kopsia, red Salak, and Fagraea splendens. They were found or rediscovered in the Nee Soon Swamp Forest, which is the only remaining primary freshwater swamp forest in Singapore. Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.
