Singapore Post profit up 25 pct on property income

Singapore Post , the country’s main mail group, on Friday reported a 25 percent rise in quarterly profit, due to higher rental and property-related income and said this year’s focus would be on regional growth.
The Singapore postal group said in a statement it earned a net profit of S$38.6 million ($25.5 million) in its fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, compared to S$30.9 million in the previous year.

Rental and property-related income rose 15.5 percent to S$5.2 million, due to higher rental rates and yield enhancements.

Full-year net profit rose 13.3 percent to S$139.8 million, beating a consensus forecast of about S$136.1 million from eight analysts polled by Reuters Estimates.

Quarterly revenue rose 7.3 percent to S$112.6 million as a result of higher sales in its three divisions — mail, logistics and retail.

SingPost has also proposed a final dividend of of 2.5 Singapore cents per share. Together with the interim dividends of 1.25 cents per share paid in each of the first three quarters of fiscal 2006/07, the total annual dividend amounts to 6.25 cents.