SingPost shareholders vote overwhelmingly in favour of the A$1 billion sale of Australian business

[SINGAPORE] Singapore Post (SingPost) shareholders on Thursday (Mar 13) voted in favour of the sale of the Australian logistics business Freight Management Holdings (FMH).

Of the shareholders who voted at the extraordinary general meeting, 99.9 per cent supported the divestment, which is material in terms of the deal value, as well as the contributions that the Australian unit has been making to the group.

The sale of the business – at an enterprise value of A$1 billion (S$856.5 million) – to Australian private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners will reap A$775.9 million in gross proceeds and a capital gain of about S$289.5 million.

SingPost’s board said it will consider paying a special dividend with the proceeds, which will also be deployed towards paying down the debt taken to acquire the logistics business in Australia, as well as to use as capital for future investments.

At the meeting, it announced plans to invest S$30 million to install a new, fully automated e-commerce parcel sorting equipment at its Tampines facility by mid-2026. This will centralise all its e-commerce parcel sortation into one site, and the new equipment will increase its sortation capacity for small e-commerce parcels threefold.