“These aged trade payables relate to international settlements with overseas postal administrators for international industries. We will now derecognise aged trade payables that exceed a seven-year threshold. This will remove long-standing balances from the current trade payables in the balance sheet, better reflecting the company’s current financial position,” says group CFO Isaac Mah.
The seven-year threshold stems from the six-year limit that companies have to sue for debt. If a debt owed to a company — or trade payable — has not been acknowledged, paid or pursued legally, it is generally considered “statute-barred”.
Given the trade cycle of international postal deliveries, which takes about 12 months, the group has decided to take on a “six plus one” approach, says Mah. The policy will be applied to SingPost’s balance sheet moving forward.
The group’s postal business, once its core and most reliable source of cash, is now struggling. Mail volumes have been declining for years and show no sign of reversing. To mitigate the structural decline, SingPost has increased regular domestic postage rates by 10 cents from Jan 1. The increase marks the second rate increase in less than three years, following the rate increase in October 2023.
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Yet, how much is enough? The group’s attempts to diversify its business have seen limited success. The e-commerce logistics push saw the bankruptcy of its US subsidiaries and the sale of its Australian business, once the group’s largest revenue contributor. The sale generated a large, exceptional gain, but left a much smaller company behind.
What remains in focus is SingPost Centre, once identified as a non-core asset following a strategic review completed in March 2024. At the time, the building was valued at around $1.09 billion as at Sept 30, 2023. As recently as its FY2025 results briefing in May 2025, Mah reiterated that the building, which generated strong cash flows for the group then, was still deemed non-core to the group’s operations.
That position has changed. On May 14, alongside a strategic update acknowledging previous struggles such as “structural headwinds” from declining traditional letter mail volumes and “early generation technology and systems”, group CEO Mark Chong stated categorically that the group will be keeping SingPost Centre. “It is not for sale,” he told the media. “SPC (SingPost Centre) remains a crucial part of our portfolio. We’re retaining it to harvest significant long-term upside for our shareholders.”
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Chong, who was appointed to the post in November 2025, adds that the building will benefit from the transformation of the Paya Lebar area, which will “provide [a] further boost to SingPost Centre’s asset value and redevelopment upside.”
In the meantime, the group also said that it will conduct an asset enhancement on the building to increase more commercial space, tipped to be completed by mid-2028 or “hopefully sooner”. The group has already appointed an architect and works are ongoing, says Mah.
On the prospect of nationalisation, Chong said that the lack of announcements means it won’t be happening. “No announcement [on nationalisation] means no la.”
In May 2025, Mah had told the media that nationalisation was “not on the cards”. The remarks came after former chairman Simon Israel said to “ask the government” at a February 2025 media roundtable briefing.
At this rate, it looks like business as usual for SingPost. Whether the group is facing a turnaround or a managed decline will be left to shareholders to decide
