KUALA LUMPUR: ECM Libra Financial Group Bhd posted a net loss of RM3.55 million in its fourth quarter (4Q) ended Jan 31, 2009, versus a net profit of RM11.21 million a year earlier, mainly due to the impairment loss of RM24 million in an associated company and lower brokerage income.

Revenue fell 30% to RM16.24 million from RM23.37 million.

ECM Libra said the lower brokerage income was caused by the lower turnover of RM86 billion on Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd, compared with RM240.6 billion a year earlier.

It said the group recorded RM1.5 million loss arising from sharing of associated company's results, as compared to RM0.6 million profit shared a year earlier.

For the whole fiscal year, net profit plunged to RM5.1 million from RM82.43 million in FY08, while revenue was more than halved to RM74.18 million from RM157.55 million. Earnings per share fell to 0.62 sen from 9.92 sen.

It proposed a final dividend of two sen per share, totalling RM16.38 million. ECM Libra said the group's fundamentals and balance sheet remained strong, and it was confident of showing a satisfactory performance despite the challenging outlook.