Rising costs and a challenging postal environment took a toll on the bottomline of Singapore Post, which reported a fourth quarter net profit of $26.1 million, down 14.6 per cent from a year ago.

Even as increased income from the company's mail, logistic, retail and financial services, and rental and property related businesses boosted revenue for the quarter by 25 per cent to $182.5 million, expenses were up 32.4 per cent to $163.8 million.