(Yicai) March 29 -- Gome Retail Holdings reported a 96 percent dip in annual revenue despite the cash-strapped Chinese home appliance retailer's net loss shrinking.

Revenue was CNY647 million (USD89.5 million) in the 12 months ended Dec. 31, versus CNY17.4 billion (USD2.4 billion) a year before, the Beijing-based company announced yesterday. Net loss halved to CNY10.1 billion in the period.

Gome saw significant decreases in impairment of goodwill, right-of-use assets, and marketing expenses last year, but they were partially offset by a decline in gross profit due to lower revenue and provisions for penalties over overdue debt interests, the firm noted.

Gome had CNY19.3 billion worth of overdue interest-bearing debts as of Feb. 29, about which the company was actively discussing with creditors to change the terms or extend their periods.

As of the end of last month, Gome had been involved in 990 pending litigation cases worth a total of CNY4.5 billion (USD630 million), and 922 cases involving about CNY13 billion had been decided by the court. By then, Gome had frozen funds of CNY114 million.

Gome is in a difficult situation, and the best way for the company to get out of it might be through an acquisition, according to a senior industry insider.

China's retail sales of home appliances rose 3.6 percent to CNY849.8 billion last year from the previous one, according to data from Beijing All View Cloud Data Technology. But Gome's market share plunged to under 1 percent in the period.

In recent years, Gome has been transitioning towards live-streaming e-commerce. Its account on Chinese short-video platform Douyin has 240,000 followers.

Editor: Futura Costaglione