KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — Datuk Ibrahim Yahaya has resigned today as Utusan Melayu (Malaysia) Bhd’s executive director just one week into his appointment, according to a filing with Bursa Malaysia.
The former press secretary of Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi quit as a member of the group’s nomination and renumeration committees on Monday, just a day before the latter handed over his party president duties to Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.
When contacted by Malay Mail, Ibrahim confirmed he has also resigned as group editor-in-chief.
The Malay daily has yet to appoint a replacement.
The man known to his friends as “Tiger” was elected to the group’s board as an independent director in July, with three others, after Zahid succeeded Datuk Seri Najib Razak as party president.
Just last week, executive chairman Datuk Abd Aziz Sheikh Fadzir had also resigned due to “personal business commitments”.
Abd Aziz, 55, had taken 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.
Ibrahim was the former press secretary to Zahid 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.
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.
* Editor's note: An earlier version of this article contained an error which has since been rectified.
