SingPost past and present: How a 200-year old monopoly got disrupted

[SINGAPORE] Some have quipped that the postal service is the original social media. It facilitated widespread communication and connection over distances for centuries before email, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, or even the telephone, arrived.

In Singapore, postal services landed with the founding of Singapore by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819.

For 200 years, its monopolistic or near-monopolistic operations played such a dominant role in Singapore’s daily life and industry that one can trace the beginnings of the POSB Bank and the early history of Singtel to SingPost. It was also a founding tenant of the iconic Fullerton Hotel, the grande dame of colonial architecture that once housed the General Post Office.

The company was such an investor darling at one point that it drew an investment from Alibaba, the China big tech and e-commerce giant.

But those halcyon days are long over. Ten years after it backed the company, Alibaba dumped S$33 million of its SingPost shares.

With social media and couriers eating its lunch, SingPost’s performance has been on the decline as it fights cut-throat competition. In FY2025, its underlying profit dived 40 per cent, and in the first quarter of FY2026, its group operating profit fell by 60 per cent.

Contributing to the shrinking top and bottomline was the group’s recent divestment of the group’s Australian logistics business at an enterprise value at A$1.02 billion. While that unlocked value for shareholders, it also raised worrying questions on what’s the company’s long-term strategic direction.

Today, SingPost’s businesses serve customers in more than 220 global destinations and employs over 3,000 employees.

BT retraces the rich history of SingPost:

A gilt-edged legacy

1819: A single mail office is established in the same year Stamford Raffles arrives in Singapore. The postal service was the original national network, marking the beginning of what would become a pillar of the nation’s infrastructure.

1858: The Post Office splits from the Marine Office to form a distinct department, marking the formal beginning of a public postal service in Singapore. 

1877: The Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) is established within the postal department to provide banking services to lower-income workers.

1928: The General Post Office moves into its newly completed headquarters in Raffles Place, the Fullerton Building. The neoclassical landmark, strategically located at the mouth of the Singapore River, becomes the nerve centre of the island’s mail network.

1972: The Telecommunication Authority of Singapore (TAS) set up as a statutory board, which merged with the Singapore Telephone Board two years later.

1982: TAS merges with the Postal Services Department.

1992: TAS splits into three entities – Singapore Post Pte Ltd (SingPost), Singapore Telecommunications Pte Ltd (Singtel), and the Telecommunications Authority of Singapore, which later became the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

2003: SingPost launches its Initial Public Offering and is listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) in May. Backed by extensive property assets and a monopoly on basic mail, it is viewed as a stable, blue-chip stock.

Peaks and troughs

2014-2015: Alibaba buys a 10.35 per cent stake in SingPost for S$312.5 million in May 2014. SingPost expands into e-commerce logistics. Its stock price soars over 43 per cent in 2014 and reaches all-time highs in early 2015. The market bets on a global e-commerce powerhouse in the making.

2000s: Public gains access to email. By the 2000s, it had gained ubiquitous status, ringing the death knell for postal mail. The subsequent spread of smartphones sealed the fate of “snail mail”.

2016: A special audit is launched to investigate a potential conflict of interest concerning board member Keith Tay’s role in the 2013 acquisition of Famous Holdings. The audit exposes significant lapses in SingPost’s corporate governance framework, triggering a crisis of confidence.

The uncertainty proves toxic for the stock. From its early 2015 peak of around S$2.15, the share price falls nearly 15 per cent by the end of the year, and close to another 10 per cent in 2016.

2017-2019: SingPost is forced to announce a write-down on its US e-commerce acquisitions, TradeGlobal and Jagged Peak, which it had bought for over US$180 million combined in 2015. The businesses failed to perform and eventually filed for bankruptcy protection. The company’s global ambitions suffer a blow.

2018-2022: Operational struggles intensify and result in regulatory action. For service lapses in 2018, IMDA fines it S$300,000. Years of negative headlines about service failures further erodes its brand value.

2020-2025: Earnings turn volatile as profits swing between deterioration and improvement.

For the latest quarterly results announced in August, SingPost said its operating profit sank 60 per cent to S$3.4 million, with operating profit margin dipping to a mere 2 per cent.

Parcelgate scandal

Early 2024: A whistleblower report alleges that three employees in the International Business Unit were systematically falsifying delivery statuses to avoid contractual penalties from a major client.

Dec 2024: The board announces the termination of three top executives: group CEO Vincent Phang, group CFO Vincent Yik, and the CEO of the international business unit Li Yu.

The bourse filing states that they had been “grossly negligent” in the handling of the internal investigations, and had omitted to consider material facts that compromised their decision-making and/or failed to perform their duties responsibly and reliably.

The market’s reaction is swift and severe, and investor confidence vaporises. On the first trading day following the announcement of the executive firings, SingPost’s stock price plummets more than 10 per cent.

All three executives contest their firing.

Management actions

Mar 2025: SingPost completes the sale of its Australian subsidiary, Freight Management Holdings, for an enterprise value of A$1 billion.

Jul 2025: The company sells its freight forwarding business, Famous Holdings, for S$177 million.
These divestments mark an end to its previous global expansion strategy, as it raises capital to pay down debt, issue special dividends and refocus its core business.

Aug 2025: SingPost unveils new corporate service to help businesses manage US custom duties following recent changes to the de minimis rule.