KUALA LUMPUR (March 20): Berjaya Media Bhd, which publishes the newspaper The Sun, saw a smaller net loss of RM2.45 million or 1.04 sen per share in the third quarter ended Jan 31, 2018 (3QFY18), 46% lower than its net loss of RM4.51 million in the previous year’s corresponding quarter (3QFY17).

The smaller quarterly loss was mainly due to the absence of impairment loss on publishing rights during the quarter, compared with the previous year when the group booked a RM1.5 million impairment loss.

Quarterly revenue, however, fell 23% year-on-year to RM8.3 million from RM10.72 million, due to lower advertising income by its principal operating subsidiary, Sun Media Corp Sdn Bhd.

For the cumulative three quarters, net loss contracted 9% y-o-y to RM6.47 million from RM7.12 million, while revenue declined 21% y-o-y to RM26.77 million from RM33.68 million.

Going forward, Berjaya Media said it will continue to focus on improving advertising revenue, but expects conditions to remain challenging amid prevailing economic conditions, which will impact the advertising and promotion budgets of most corporate clients and advertisers.

Besides initiating more marketing efforts amid the challenging environment, the group said it is exploring other options to turn around its business.

“The board has been exploring other options (including diversifying into new businesses outside the media sector) to strengthen the financial position of the group with the key objective of regularising its PN17 condition.

“At this juncture, no suitable or viable proposal has been shortlisted for consideration,” said the group.

Berjaya Media closed unchanged at 23 sen, giving it a market capitalisation of RM54.07 million.