Datasonic resubmitting proposals for Malaysian passports
CYBERJAYA: Datasonic Group Bhd will submit fresh proposals to the Home Affairs Ministry to make Malaysian passports. This is following the change in government last month.
Managing director Datuk Abu Hanifah Noordin said all proposals submitted in the past would have to be reviewed and resubmitted as the new government had different priorities, constraints and objectives.
“We will submit new proposals on Malaysian passports as we have always offered the best value, and our pricing is lower than the previous tender.
“Our project awards are mainly from competitive tenders,” he said after the company’s shareholders meeting, here, yesterday.
He said, for example, the company’s passport project, when first introduced, was 15 per cent cheaper than the existing vendor and the quality of the company’s passports was 10 times better.
At the extraordinary meeting yesterday, Datasonic shareholders approved the issuance of 675 million free warrants on the basis of one free warrant for every two existing shares.
If the warrants are fully exercised at RM1.01, the gross proceeds will be RM681.75 million, which will be utilised to strengthen Datasonic’s capital base and provide the group with additional working capital.
Two months ago, Datasonic announced it was buying a factory in Klang for RM18.88 million for smart card manufacturing.
Incidentally, its unit, Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd, had also secured a RM270.71 million contract from the Home Affairs Ministry to supply 9.96 million polycarbonate biodata pages to the Immigration Department of Malaysia. Datasonic has furnished a RM3.5 million performance bond to the ministry, effective February 1 this year to November 30 2022.
On earnings, Datasonic net profit rose 7.32 per cent to RM67.24 million for financial year (FY) 2018, compared with RM62.66 million in FY17.
Revenue fell 18.77 per cent year-on-year to RM258.6 million, from RM318.35 million previously.
All proposals would have to be reviewed and resubmitted as the new government has different priorities, constraints and objectives.
Datasonic Group MD