Hong Kong-listed multi-media company Tom Group Ltd executives say the firm recorded a HK$297 million loss in its 2007 net earnings.

The losses were announced yesterday and attributed to deteriorating revenue from its publishing and Internet arms.

According to a company statement issued to the Hong Kong stock exchange, the loss was opposed to the firm's 2006 gain of HK$32 million in net profits.

The company's earning come from operating publishing houses, outdoor media, the Internet, television and entertainment.

But last year, its net income from the online business dropped nearly 65 percent, from HK$302 million to HK$107 million the previous year.

Another loss came from a dip in the sales of phone ringtones and music downloads, from HK$2.8 billion to HK$2.68 billion, year on year.

"Tom's wireless business was seriously impacted by the tightening policies in the mainland's mobile-phone regulatory, and from related mobile-operator policies," Chief Executive Officer Tommei Tong told reporters yesterday at the results announcement.

The 43-year-old Tong then announced her resignation from her post, citing pregnancy. The company's shares have declined 71 percent since she was appointed chief executive of Tom Group in 2006.

China's leading mobile-phone operators, China Mobile and China Unicom, limited Tom Group's access to their customers in order to reduce unwanted advertisements and promotional messages to phones.

Tom Group's Internet revenue, mainly from sales of mobile-phone related content, fell 21 percent to HK$1.1 billion last year.

Its publishing sector also recorded losses, with net profits from the arm sliding from HK$99 million to HK$92 million, year-on-year.

"Our book distributors suffered bad business, and some of them had to close their stores over the last year," Tong said.

"However, despite the continued tightening policies of China Mobile, which necessitated the inclusion of a one-off impairment item, the group has maintained a high level of operational efficiency and has shown itself able to respond promptly to market opportunities with the launch of a variety of new products and services," Tong said.

"We have closed subsidiary companies that were losing business, such as publishing houses that didn't make profits, but there is still a lot to be done to achieve a better financial result," she said.

In 2006, China Mobile and China Unicom introduced rules that required mobile-phone content providers, such as Tom Online and Sina Corp, to offer longer free-trial periods.

Tom Group's loss included a HK$127 million impairment charge in its Internet business after the mobile companies changed their marketing guidelines.

The media company, which is controlled by Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, also lost HK$104 million from Tom Eachnet, an online auction venture with Ebay Inc on the mainland, it said in a press release.

In August, Tom Group paid about HK$1.6 billion to privatize the stock of Tom Online. The privatization of Tom Online has helped the group lower its operational costs by HK$40 million, according to Tong.

Tong said her successor, Chief Operating Officer Ken Yeung, will be able to further strengthen the group's footprint in the industry.

Other news agencies contributed to the story.