Next Media, which is in the process of selling its loss-making Taiwan businesses, has reported losses for the six months to September, almost triple that of last year.
The group, which publishes the Chinese-language and a number of magazines in Hong Kong, and has newspaper and television businesseses in Taiwan, said the losses for the six months amounted to HK$928.39 million compared with HK$324.02 million for the same period last year.
The loss, it said, was mainly caused by impairment charges on assets and equipment as a result of cessation of its multimedia division and programmes and films rights of its television division in Taiwan.
The television and multimedia division recorded a loss of HK$972.3 million, up from a loss of HK$495.8 million a year ago.
The group's core newspaper publication business reported a profit decline of 52 per cent to HK$106.4 million for the six months, down from HK$221.8 million a year earlier, mainly due to a drop in advertising revenue and investment costs for the free .
Its flagship paid-newspaper suffered an 18.7 per cent year-on-year drop in advertising revenue to HK$293.5 million. The also saw a drop of revenue of 13.8 per cent to HK$577.1 million for the six months. Its magazines' total revenue dropped 3.9 per cent to HK$514 million.
