Riyadh – Mubasher: Saudi Cable Co. on Sunday reported a sharp decline in losses for the full year 2017.

The cable company logged SAR 80.3 million in losses, registering a 65.88% drop from SAR 253.39 million in losses incurred in 2016, according to a bourse filing.

Saudi Cable attributed narrowing its losses to a cancelled debt of SAR 77 million from a lender added to lower operating expenses and improved margins.

The bank’s cancellation of the debt comes as part of Saudi Cable’s restructure, the company added in its statement to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

Losses per share (LPS) amounted to SAR 1.45 in 2017 versus LPS of SAR 3.1 in 2016.

Other reasons for the year-on-year decline in losses included the “absence of provision against development cost and impairment of Goodwill as compared to [2016 and] share of loss from associates as compared to a profit in the year ended 2016,” Saudi Cable stated.

The Saudi firm previously reported turning to losses in the third quarter of 2017 with SAR 34.5 million versus SAR 4.9 million in profits in the same period of the previous year.