Jovian Capital Corp. today reported a wider loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2009 due to falling revenue at its investment dealer unit MGI Securities Inc.

The Toronto-based financial services holding company reported a net loss of $2.8 million, or 2¢ share, for the quarter ended June 30. That compares with a loss of $54,000, or 0¢ a share in the first quarter of fiscal 2008

Revenue for the quarter was $23.4 million, compared with $30.5 million in the year ago period.

The biggest impact to revenue related to MGI, where revenue decreased by $5.2 million to negative $0.7 million. MGI’s capital markets group experienced continued weakness in their focus sectors, junior gold and mining. In light of ongoing challenging capital markets, MGI implemented cost reduction initiatives and decreased its capital market activities and operations during the quarter. As a result, MGI incurred approximately $0.7 million of non-recurring expenses, of which $0.6 million related to compensation and benefits. It is anticipated that MGI’s current fixed-cost platform will now be at a level that is supported by its revenue capability.

Client assets rose 7% to $16 billion versus $15 billion at the end of June 30, 2007 and $15 billion at the end of March 31, 2008.

Horizon BetaPro Funds reached a record $1.5 billion in assets under management (AUM) and its exchange traded funds represented close to 68% of total TSX ETF trading volumes in June 2008.

“BetaPro continues to reach record assets under management and trading volumes, and was the biggest driver of the 7% rise in client assets in our portfolio companies during the quarter. This continued strong performance supported our decision to increase our ownership in BetaPro during the quarter,” says Philip Armstrong, CEO of Jovian. “To address the decline in transactional revenue, MGI has taken measures to decrease its cost base and capital markets activities. We are prepared to revisit a growth strategy for MGI’s capital markets division if general market conditions improve.”

Jovian’s operating expenses for the three-month period ended June 30, were $26.3 million, compared with $30.5 million in the year ago period, representing a decrease of $4.2 million or 14%.