CYBERJAYA (July 29): Datasonic Group Bhd is targeting to capture half of Malaysia's payment card-renewal market by end of 2016, a move which will see the electronic-identification specialist raising its card output.
 
Non-executive chairman General Tan Sri Dr Mohamed Hashim Mohd Ali said Datasonic (fundamental: 2.2; valuation: 0.9) planned to manufacture 10 million cards a year, from the current two to three million cards.
 
"The new way of doing business would enhance the security of payment cards, and we are ready for it, we have invested RM6 million for the facilities," Mohamed Hashim told reporters after Datasonic's annual general meeting here today.

Datasonic's move follows a directive from Bank Negara Malaysia.

Last year, Bank Negara issued a payment card reform framework that required banks to migrate the payment card system to a pin-based model, from the current signature-based scheme.

In recent days, Datasonic shares were closely watched, in anticipation the company would clinch a Malaysian government contract involving passport and ICT solutions.

Datasonic's share price movement had sparked Bursa Malaysia's query. Today, Mohamed Hashim said the authorities were still evaluating Datasonic's proposals.

He said Datasonic was confident as the proposals entailed the best pricing, besides quality services and products in the industry.

At 12:30pm, Datasonic shares rose three sen or 2.4% to settle at RM1.27, for a market capitalisation of RM1.71 billion.

The stock saw some four million shares done.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)