KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 9): Datasonic Group Bhd (KL:DSONIC), whose share price rose to its highest in more than a month on Monday, confirmed that it is in negotiations with the Home Ministry regarding a Malaysian passport contract.
Shares of Datasonic rose as much as 9.88% or four sen to 44.5 sen, before paring gains to 42.5 sen — still up 4.94% or two sen — at market close. More than 29 million shares were traded, valuing the company at RM1.25 billion.
In the latest filings, the integrated information and communications technology solution provider responded to Bursa Malaysia Securities Bhd’s query after The Edge Malaysia weekly reported on Dec 9, quoting sources privy to the development, that the company had finally secured a new contract for Malaysian passports.
“Datasonic wishes to confirm that the company is in the midst of negotiation with the Home Ministry with regard to the Malaysian passport contract,” it said in a filing.
The article also reported that Datasonic is believed to have secured a new five-year contract to supply materials for three million Malaysian passports annually, with the fee estimated to be between RM100 and RM115 per document.
“In respect of items above, the matters have not been finalised. Due to confidentiality of the matters, the company is unable to disclose further details,” it said.
If the new passport supply contract materialises, it will be Datasonic's first contract renewal since November 2021, when the original contract expired.
In December 2015, Datasonic’s subsidiary Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd (DTSB) was awarded a contract to supply Malaysian passport chips for a period of five years, or 12.5 million chips, from Dec 1, 2016 to Nov 30, 2021, for a contract sum of RM318.75 million.
Four months later, in April 2016, DTSB was awarded a RM223.38 million contract for the supply of 13.42 million passport booklets for five years until Nov 30, 2021.
In April 2018, DTSB was also given a RM270.7 million contract for the supply of 9.96 million polycarbonate biodata pages for 46 months from Feb 1, 2018 to Nov 30, 2021.