PETALING JAYA, Dec 13 — Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd has announced the resignation of executive chairman Datuk Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir in a filing to Bursa Malaysia today.

According to Malay daily, Abd Aziz had resigned due to “personal business commitments”.

Abd Aziz, 55, took over as executive chairman on June 7 from Tan Sri Mohamad Fatmi Che Salleh who, along with four other directors, had resigned due to changes in the Umno leadership after Barisan Nasional’s loss in the 14th general election (GE14).

Aziz failed to retain the Kulim-Bandar Baru Parliamentary constituency in GE14 when he was defeated by PKR’s Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail.

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Meanwhile Datuk Ibrahim Yahya, 58, has been appointed executive director and will likely be heading Utusan Melayu in his new role. He was previously independent director.

Ibrahim was the former press secretary to former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi from August 2015 to May 2018.

Prior to this, he was the director-general of broadcasting at the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia in 2009.

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Another change to the board was Datuk Seri Irmohizam Ibrahim, 42, who has been appointed as independent and non-executive director.

Irmohizam was previously Kuala Selangor MP and chairman of the Malaysian Fisheries Development from 2013 until 2018.

Utusan Melayu incurred a net loss of RM33.9 million for its third quarter ended September 30, 2018, compared with a net profit of RM31.45 million in the same quarter last year. Quarterly revenue halved to RM40.11 million from RM93.44 million due to lower revenue from its Tutor Guru distribution and the absence of a gain on disposal.

The group is in the process of forming a regularisation plan after it lapsed into Practice Note 17 status on August 20.

On December 4, it announced that it was selling its five storey shop-office  in Section 14, Petaling Jaya for RM7 million, netting a gain of RM3.95 million that would be used to fund its working capital requirements and day-to-day operations.