New player looking to challenge MYEG

THERE is a new player in town looking to enter the space previously dominated by online service provider MYEG Services Bhd.

For the longest time, MYEG was more or less the monopoly when it came to e-government services. Its name is now synonymous with people wanting to conduct online transaction for a number of government services.

Dapat Vista (M) Sdn Bhd, the owner of the Mypay app, is looking to be a challenger to what MYEG is doing.

Dapat Vista is currently about 29% owned by listed entity Sinotop Bhd. Upon completion of the pending acquisition, Sinotop will own 40% in Dapat Vista.

The man behind Dapat Vista is seasoned advertising and broadcasting man, Sabri Rahman.

He was the original founder of Dapat Vista in 2003 and previously a director in Media Prima Bhd.

“Yes we are going into the e-government space, but we have much bigger aspirations. There are 370 government agencies out there, and we are looking to reach out to them.”

“Our vision is simply to connect the public with information or data that is useful to them, using hand-held devices as a medium,” says Sabri.

Mypay is a smartphone app with a payment gateway built into it.

Sabri aspires for Mypay to be a household name in mobile and digital financial management services, along with loads of key information like even the weather, pandemic management and travel advisory.

As it is, Dapat Vista is already in our lives without us noticing it. The MKN (Majlis Keselamatan Negara) text messages we receive on a daily basis is handled by the company.

Dapat Vista started off in 2004 when it started using short messaging services (sms) services in 2004, and created products like Rakancop together with the KL Police force, and later traffic summonses checking for the Royal Malaysian Police Force via sms.

The proof of concept with the KL Police won an approval by the Malaysian Government to provide similar services for some 374 Government Agencies and Departments via a built and operate contract in 2015.

Mypay already serves some government agencies, which include e-jamin, payment, PTPTN loans, MPSJ, Majlis Peperiksaan Malaysia, Zakat payments and the purchase of credit reports from Credit Rating Agency Malaysia among others.

Coin collection

Sabri knows getting the public to use its service through the Mypay app is going to be tough and it will need to roll out compelling services.

For starters, it will be launching a nationwide coin collection project, and it already has the support of Bank Negara.

There are presently some Rm3.5bil worth of coins not going back into the system. A recent survey shows that almost every household have jars of coins lying unused somewhere in the house.

To get this money “working” again, a nationwide campaign will be launched where the public will be able to deposit their coins in kiosks placed in selected petrol stations around the country.

Concurrently, Mypay will also launch its own e-wallet along with this project. Thus, the coins that are cashed in by the public will immediately be deposited into Mypay’s e-wallet, which can be used to transact to pay for everything and anything, says Sabri.

“Many more are in the works as we speak, all of which will be rolled out almost on monthly basis from June 2020 onwards,” said Sabri.

Mypay’s target is to serve some 20% of Malaysia’s smart phone users by early 2021. The ultimate goal though is to have the lion’s share of smartphone users in Malaysia and he thinks this is possible because they will be rolling out compelling services as a carrot for users to download without cost.

Mypay will be inviting banks, utilities telcos and airlines among others to come on board the app.

On the corporate front, board changes have also been taking place within the company. On April 21, the former chief justice of Malaysia, Tun Zaki Azmi was appointed as an independent director to the board of Sinotop.

The on May 27, Datuk Abdul Aziz Abu Bakar, who is presently an independent director in Airasia Bhd, became a substantial shareholder of the company, with a 6.9% stake in the company, or 30 million shares.

Sinotop shares which were hovering at the 12 sen level on April 23, has since shot up 375% to its close of 57 sen as of June 4.

So what is Mypay?

Mypay is envisioned to be a gateway for billers of all sorts, and this will encompass all types of government billings.

Examples would include payments for road tax, licenses, permits, stamp duties, to posting of bail, to quit rents to business, personal taxes, and repayment of housing loans, to rental of government premises.

Mypay is looking to connect all these to the public through the app.

Sabri says to imagine all of the above, appearing on one smart app, that automatically sorts information relevant only to you the Mypay user.

“Each one of us have our records connected to things in Malaysia via our National Registration Card numbers.

So once Mypay users downloads the Mypay App for free, Mypay connects the users to data that is relevant to them.

As a result of this, no more forgotten bills, penalties or bad credit ratings. All this on the back of a secured digital and mobile convenience.

Recently, minister in the prime minister’s department Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said that Putrajaya intends to offer online delivery for 95% of government services as part of its digital transformation plan.

The Perikatan Nasional administration wants 70% of intra-government communications and services to be digitised.

On the corporate front, Sinotop announced on April 23 that it was acquiring a 51% stake in Television Airtime Services Sdn Bhd (TAS), which is Sabri’s investment vehicle, which owns a 20% stake in Dapat Vista. This was priced at Rm7mil via cash of Rm2mil and 38.4 million Sinotop shares at 13 sen.

Corporate guarantee

Post completion of this 51% stake in TAS, Sinotop has warranted to provide a corporate guarantee to support the financing for the completion of acquisition of 36% in Dapat Vista from Heitech Padu Bhd for Rm7.57mil.

On Dec 10, 2019, TAS and Heitech Padu had already entered into a sale and purchase agreement for the disposal by Heitech Padu’s 60% equity interest in Dapat Vista to TAS for Rm13.5mil, together with the settlement of outstanding amount by TAS to Heitech Padu amounting to Rm4mil.

Thus TAS will end up with an 80% stake in Dapat Vista.

“We do look to eventually increase Sinotop’s stake in Dapat Vista beyond the current 56% based on the contractual agreement with Heitech Padu. That is the jewel within the company, hence the best way to give value to shareholders is to consolidate more of its earnings in the future,” says Sabri.

Sinotop chairman Datuk Kenny Ng added: “With the completion of the proposed disposal of the company’s former textile business, Sinotop is looking to further support Mypay with needed working capital for dynamic growth going forward in this competitive market.”

For the longer term, Sabri said that Dapat Vista’s broader strategy is to target the 650 million Asean population, and to have a footprint in Asean countries both in terms of services, users and operating partners.

“Yes, we are going into the e-government space, but we have much bigger aspirations. Sabri Rahman