KUALA LUMPUR: Pos Malaysia Bhd boosted its earnings by a third to RM84.06mil for the financial year ended March 31 (FY17) thanks to strong demand for courier services from e-commerce and online businesses.The nation’s postal service provider told Bursa Malaysia that its courier segment registered a 23% higher revenue of RM684.58mil.“The upward performance was driven by surge in demand from online businesses’ demand and encouraging sales from the Prepaid promotion campaign,” it said.Pos Malaysia’s courier arm Pos Laju launched its Prepaid Dropbox service in June last year and ran a Prepaid Craze Contest from Dec 1, 2016, to Feb 28.Postal services remained the biggest revenue contributor, but the segment’s revenue slipped 5% to RM779.53mil in FY17.Overall revenue for the year increased 21% to RM2.08bil mainly due to the inclusion of RM326.6mil generated from the newly acquired logistics business.Pos Malaysia completed the purchase of Pos Aviation Sdn Bhd (formerly KL Airport Services Sdn Bhd) from its substantial shareholder DRB-Hicom Bhd in September last year.Regarding Pos Malaysia’s fourth-quarter results, its earnings slid 26% to RM10.64mil although revenue soared 47% to RM635.55mil (due mainly to the logistics revenue).Group chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Shukrie Mohd Salleh said in a press statement: “We are pleased that the disciplined execution of the various strategic initiatives of our transformation programme to become the e-commerce fulfilment and logistics services provider of choice started off well with strong revenue growth and improved profitability; reaffirming that the Pos Malaysia group’s aspirations have started to show positive results.”Pos Malaysia said the group’s prospects remained positive in the near to medium term due to factors such as the continued growth in e-commerce and the Government’s investments in transportation infrastructure.It said its board would consider paying a dividend when the full year account was adopted next month.