KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 13): Shareholders of Datasonic Group Bhd (KL:DSONIC) have rejected the company's proposal to relax the requirement to adopt directors' written resolutions at its extraordinary general meeting (EGM).
This was one of two resolutions that were not passed at the EGM, which saw a total of five resolutions brought up for voting by its shareholders.
Also rejected was a resolution to provide ESOS options to its recently-appointed independent non-executive director Tunku Datuk Nooruddin Tunku Shahabuddin. ESOS options to two other directors were approved: for executive director Erna Ismail and executive deputy chairman and CEO Datuk Abu Hanifah Noordin.
The rejected resolution would have seen Datasonic directors' written resolutions requiring the votes of only a majority of entitled directors, rather than the votes of all directors stipulated currently.
According to Datasonic's filing, 70 shareholders representing 57.74% of voted shares supported this proposal, as opposed to 25 shareholders holding 42.26% of the voted shares.
As for Nooruddin's ESOS options, 42 shareholders holding 75.99% rejected the proposed allocation, while 53 shareholders holding 24% of voted shares supported it.
Shareholders of Datasonic include Datuk Safian Mohd Yunus, who resigned as non independent non executive director in January (0.01% direct stake and 13% indirect); Urusharta Jamaah Sdn bhd (8.26% direct stake); Abu Hanifah (7.82% indirect stake) and chief operating officer Chiew Chi Hong (3.61% direct stake and 1.28% indirect).
Meanwhile, the EGM also saw the approval of Datasonic's bonus issue of warrants on the basis of one warrant for every two shares held in the company.
Datasonic, which has proposed to change its name to NexG Bhd, saw a slew of board changes in recent months, before revealing a plan to provide end-to-end physical and digital identity and security solutions.
Part of the plan sees Datasonic making a RM40 million acquisition of a 51% stake in Innov8if Holdings Sdn Bhd, a company which specialises in ID verification technology to support e-know-your-customer (e-KYC) and e-know-your-business (e-KYB) processes.
On Monday (Dec 9), Datasonic confirmed that it is in talks with the Ministry of Home Affairs regarding a contract related to Malaysian passports.
The group had similar contracts in the past, namely a RM318.75 million contract to supply 12.5 million passport chips and a RM223.38 million contract to supply 13.42 million passport booklets in 2016-2021; as well as a RM270.7 million contract to supply 9.96 million polycarbonate biodata pages in 2018-2021.
Shares of Datasonic settled unchanged at 43 sen, giving it a market capitalisation of RM1.28 billion. The counter is up just 1.18% this year.