Pos Malaysia losses have become one of the clearest signs that Malaysia’s old postal model is under pressure. The company is not just another courier business struggling to compete. It is a national postal operator expected to serve the whole country, even when parts of that service no longer make commercial sense.
That is why Pos Malaysia looks like it is on life support. The business keeps losing money, but Malaysia still needs the service.
Pos Malaysia is Malaysia’s national postal and courier service provider. Its role goes beyond sending parcels and letters. It operates one of the country’s largest delivery and touchpoint networks, covering homes, businesses, rural areas and government-related postal needs.
According to Pos Malaysia, it serves more than 11 million addresses nationwide and operates across mail, parcels, logistics, aviation and other services. Its 2025 annual report also describes the company as the designated provider of Malaysia’s Universal Service Obligation, or USO, meaning it must provide basic postal access nationwide.
This is the key difference between Pos Malaysia and many private couriers. A private courier can focus on profitable cities and high-volume routes. Pos Malaysia is expected to serve the whole map.
Pos Malaysia is a public-listed company, not a normal government department. Its major shareholder is DRB-HICOM, which acquired Khazanah Nasional’s 32% stake in Pos Malaysia in 2011. By 2016, DRB-HICOM’s stake had increased to 53.5%, according to Pos Malaysia’s annual report.
So who funds it?
Most of its money still comes from business revenue. In FY2025, Pos Malaysia recorded revenue of about RM1.84 billion. Its postal segment remained the largest contributor, followed by aviation, logistics and other services.
But because Pos Malaysia also carries a national duty, government-linked support has become increasingly important. In October 2025, the Communications Ministry, through MCMC, said it was finalising RM50 million for a Postal Service Fund to support the sustainability of postal services, especially in rural areas.
That is why the company feels stuck between two worlds. It is listed like a business, but expected to behave like public infrastructure.
The main reason for Pos Malaysia losses is simple: people do not send letters like they used to.
Bills, bank statements, government notices, business documents and personal messages have moved online. Email, WhatsApp, e-banking, e-wallets and digital government services have permanently reduced demand for physical mail.
This is a structural problem, not a temporary slowdown.
When letter volume falls, the cost of the postal network does not fall at the same speed. Pos Malaysia still needs delivery staff, vehicles, sorting centres, post offices, systems and nationwide routes.
That is where the pain begins. If a postman still has to cover the same area but carries fewer letters, each delivery becomes more expensive.
The biggest issue behind Pos Malaysia losses is the Universal Service Obligation.
USO means Pos Malaysia must provide basic postal service nationwide, including remote and commercially unattractive areas. This is important for national access, but difficult for profit.
A normal company can close unprofitable routes, avoid rural delivery, reduce branches and focus only on high-margin customers. Pos Malaysia cannot do that so easily because its role is tied to national coverage.
This is why calling Pos Malaysia “just a failing courier company” misses the point. It is carrying a social obligation that many private competitors do not carry.
The company is effectively paying to keep a national postal network alive, even though the old letter business that used to support that network has collapsed.
At first, e-commerce looked like it could save Pos Malaysia. If letters were dying, parcels were growing.
But parcel delivery is a very different business.
It is competitive, price-sensitive and dominated by e-commerce platforms, courier networks and aggressive delivery players. Shopee, Lazada and other platforms have pushed the market towards speed, convenience and low cost.
Pos Malaysia did see parcel growth. In FY2025, parcel volume grew 9%, while traditional domestic mail volume fell 2% and international mail volume fell 3%, according to research reported by The Star.
But growing parcels does not automatically mean growing profit. If prices are low and operating costs are high, higher volume can still produce weak margins.
That is the difficult reality for Pos Malaysia: parcels are necessary for survival, but they are not an easy rescue.
The losses are serious.
For FY2025, Pos Malaysia recorded a net loss of RM209.26 million, slightly worse than the RM202.67 million loss in FY2024. Revenue was almost flat at RM1.84 billion.
In the fourth quarter of FY2025 alone, the company recorded a net loss of RM77.09 million, even though revenue rose 2% year-on-year to RM467.81 million.
This is what makes Pos Malaysia losses worrying. The company is still generating revenue, still moving parcels, still serving the country — but the cost structure remains too heavy.
Based on FY2025 numbers, Pos Malaysia made about RM1.84 billion in revenue but lost RM209.26 million. That means, at group level, it effectively spent about RM2.05 billion to generate RM1.84 billion — or roughly RM1.11 in cost for every RM1.00 of revenue. In margin terms, that is about an 11% negative net margin.
For the postal segment, revenue was about RM1.04 billion. Pos Malaysia handled around 269 million mail items and 32.8 million parcels, or roughly 301.8 million postal items in total. On a very rough blended basis, that means average revenue was around RM3.45 per item.
If we apply the group’s negative margin to the postal segment, the estimated cost per postal item would be about RM3.84. That suggests a rough loss of RM0.39 per item.
This is why cheap mail becomes a problem. A basic domestic standard letter can still start from RM0.60, while commercial mail rates have historically been around RM1.30. But Pos Malaysia still needs staff, vehicles, sorting centres, post offices and nationwide routes. The selling price is small, but the fixed cost of serving the whole country is huge.
Because Malaysia still needs a national postal backbone.
Not every service can be judged only by profit. Rural access, official mail, government communication, national coverage and affordable basic postal services still matter.
If Pos Malaysia disappears, the private sector may not automatically replace every part of the network. Profitable urban routes would survive. Remote, low-volume and expensive routes may not.
That is why the question is not simply, “Why is Pos Malaysia still alive?” The better question is: who should pay for the parts of postal service that Malaysia still needs, but the market no longer wants to fund?
Pos Malaysia is trying to transform instead of simply waiting for rescue.
Its strategy includes becoming more parcel-led, improving delivery efficiency, cutting costs, modernising operations, growing aviation and logistics services, and expanding into areas such as fulfilment, digital certificates and international delivery.
The company has also pushed for regulatory reform, including a more sustainable way to fund the Universal Service Obligation. The proposed Postal Service Fund is part of this direction.
In simple terms, Pos Malaysia is trying to become a modern logistics and services company while still carrying the burden of being Malaysia’s national postal operator.
Pos Malaysia is not dying because Malaysians stopped needing delivery. Malaysians are ordering more parcels than ever.
The real problem is that Pos Malaysia was built for a world where letters paid for nationwide coverage. That world is gone.
Now, it must compete in a brutal parcel market while still maintaining a national postal network. It has to behave like a commercial company, but carry obligations like a public utility.
That is why Pos Malaysia losses keep happening.
The company is not dead. But the old postal model is. Unless Malaysia finds a fairer way to fund universal postal service, Pos Malaysia will remain trapped between public duty and private-sector competition.
© Copyright 2024. Designed and Developed by Made in Malaysia.
