Market value of MyEG, Datasonic dives in wake of charges against Zahid

PETALING JAYA: MyEG Services Bhd, which lost almost a quarter of its market value before trading in its shares was suspended last Friday, said it received written confirmation from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) that the company and its board of directors are not under investigation, and is not a party to the investigation leading to charges against former deputy prime minister and home affairs minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Last Friday, Zahid pleaded not guilty to 45 charges of criminal breach of trust, accepting bribes and money-laundering amounting to RM114.15 million. Three of these charges were for bribery, whereby Zahid allegedly accepted a total of RM8.25 million from Mastoro Kenny IT Consultant & Services as inducement to assist in securing MyEG projects handled by the Home Affairs Ministry.
The stock fell 24.67%or 37 sen to RM1.13 last Friday prior to the announcement. Some 97.77 million shares were traded, making it the third most active stock.
Datasonic Group Bhd lost a third of its market value, after the charge sheet against Zahid mentioned the group, alleging that its deputy managing director Chew Ben Ben paid a total of RM6 million to Zahid for the additional supply of passport chips for five years, or 12.5 million chips, by Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd.
Datasonic, however, denied issuing any payment to Zahid in relation to the supply of 12.5 million chips for Malaysian passports.
It further stated that it was awarded 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 the back of the passport cover) and 15% lower pricing compared to the previous vendor’s, that provided savings of RM56.25 million to the government over five years.
The group closed 30.2% or 21 sen lower at 48.5 sen on Friday on some 125.85 million shares traded, making it the second most active stock of the day.