MyEG, Datasonic drop sharply

UOB Kay Hian Malaysia Research believes that MyEG Services stands to be the sole beneficiary of e-bidding for the vehicle plates.

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of MyEG Services Bhd and Datasonic Group Bhd were pummelled after both companies were believed to be linked to graft charges against former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also current Umno president.

In a subsequent statement to Bursa, MyEG said it had received a letter from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission confirming and clarifying that MyEG and its board of directors are not under investigation and are not party to the investigation revolving around Zahid.

Earlier, trading of MyEG shares was suspended after the company asked for its suspension in the first half of trading. Trading for MyEG will resume on Monday.

Datasonic did not request for a suspension. The counter closed at 48 sen yesterday.

Short-selling in both counters were suspended after triggering the stock exchange’s circuit breakers.

At 12.30 pm, MyEG traded 37 sen or 25% lower at RM1.13 a share. Both were among the top three traded shares with Iris Corp Bhd being the top traded. It closed at 18 sen a share.

Datasonic Group was a competitor for projects involving the Malaysian passport and MyKad. In 2016, Iris took a hit when its contract to supply electronic passport chips to the government was not renewed and the contract was later awarded to Datasonic.

Both Datasonic and MyEG were named in separate cases in which Zahid was said to have received payments for facilitating the award of projects.

Zahid was alleged to have received a total of RM13.25mil for helping a consulting company to secure a MyEG project.

Mastoro Kenny IT Consultant & Services was named in some of the charges.

He was also accused of receiving a total of RM6mil from Datasonic managing director Chew Ben Ben.

Datasonic has been a recipient of government contracts for the supply of passport chips and polycarbonate biodata pages.

In a Bursa statement, Datasonic refuted claims that it had issued any payment to Zahid in relation to the supply of 12.5 million chips for the Malaysian passport.

“DTSB was awarded for the supply of 12.5 million chips on Dec 15, 2015 based on value proposition of enhanced chips security (to put the chips bonded into the polycarbonate datapage instead of at the back of passport cover) and 15% lower pricing as compared to the previous vendor that provided a total saving of RM56.25mil to the government over a period of five years,” Datasonic said.

MyEG also distanced itself from the corruption charges against the former deputy prime minister.

In a Bursa statement, MyEG said: “The board of directors would like to reiterate that the company had never made any payments to any party during the process to secure any of the company’s concessions awarded by the government.

“The board would like to clarify that the company is not a party to the charges against Zahid.”

Zahid is facing 45 charges related to criminal breach of trust, money laundering and corrupt practices.

He is on a RM2mil bail.