MediaZest half year losses widen

Advertising firm Mediazest said first half losses widened and as it takes further steps to reduce overheads by moving into cheaper offices in April.Loss before taxation widened to £239,000 for the six months ended September 30th 2012 compared to a loss of £151,000 the same time a year before. Revenue for the period fell to £964,000 from £1.7m previously. "The results for the period reflect a difficult start to the financial year with turnover lower than the corresponding prior period, although an improvement on the preceding six months. This is partly due to timing issues, as the corresponding prior period had two larger contracts with total value of approximately £550,000 that fell into those months," it explained in a statement.Operating losses swelled to £184,000 from a loss of £109,000 a year earlier. Diluted loss per share increased to 0.073p from 0.061p. Despite the tough prevailing general economic climate, the group said work in the retail sector has picked up since the summer. Looking ahead MediaZest believes that the general economic climate will remain difficult. The group intends to place ongoing and increasing emphasis on the MediaZest Retail and Corporate offerings."Opportunities for MediaZest's services will continue to grow, notwithstanding the head wind of budgetary constraints in the general economic climate," it added.MediaZest also announced a placing of 149,166,900 shares at 0.12p per share to raise £179,000 before expenses.Shares of MediaZest plunged 20.59% at 08:50am in London.CJ