KUALA LUMPUR • All media titles under Malaysia's Utusan Melayu group ceased publication yesterday, but sources say it will not be long before its newspapers hit the streets again.
The group's four Malay language newspapers - Utusan Malaysia, Mingguan Malaysia, and the tabloids Kosmo! and Kosmo! Ahad - are expected to resume publication on Nov 1 under a new management. Mingguan Malaysia and Kosmo! Ahad are the Sunday editions of the Bahasa Malaysia dailies.
"Utusan will live on. We are liquidating the holding company, but the ownership of the printing licences (has) been acquired by Aurora Mulia and they will relaunch publications in the near future," Utusan executive chairman Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir told theedgemarkets.com.
Aurora Mulia, a company linked to tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, has acquired a 70 per cent stake in Utusan-owned Dilof, the company that holds the printing permits for the four newspapers. Aurora Mulia also holds 31.22 per cent of shares in Media Prima, Malaysia's largest media conglomerate, which owns four television channels and the New Straits Times group.
Still, a large number of Utusan's 862 employees are not expected to be re-hired by Aurora Mulia.
Cash-strapped Utusan Melayu was owned by Umno until the Malay nationalist party lost last year's general election. The group ceased operations after Datuk Abd Aziz announced that poor cash flow, mounting debts and declining sales led to the board of directors deciding on Monday to shut down the company's operations.
He said the board approved the creditors' voluntary liquidation proposal and appointed UHY Advisory (KL) as interim liquidator.
"This step had to be taken because the board was of the view that the company is no longer solvent to continue business," he said in a statement on Wednesday.
Utusan Malaysia was first published as Utusan Melayu in Jawi script in 1939 in Singapore. It was founded by Mr Yusof Ishak, who later became the first president of Singapore, and Mr Abdul Rahim Kajai, known as the father of Malay journalism.
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
