KUALA LUMPUR (March 29): Datasonic Group Bhd’s two largest shareholders have resigned from the board of the ICT solutions provider, its filings showed today.
In its filing to Bursa Malaysia, Datasonic said deputy managing director Chew Ben Ben and non-executive director Datuk Razali Mohd Yusof have resigned, effective today.
Chew owns a direct stake of 19.32% in Datasonic, and an indirect interest of 0.03%, while Razali holds 16.77% in Datasonic. Urusharta Jamaah Sdn Bhd is the third largest shareholder in Datasonic with a 9.29% stake.
Chew, 64, has served the role for 10 years, according to Bloomberg data. Chew resigned from Datasonic “to further studies for self-improvement and pursue personal interest”, company filing showed. His resignation comes on the heels of a corruption proceeding on March 18 involving himself and an offshore vessel support company in which he once served as director. Chew has pleaded not guilty.
Chew’s role will be taken over by 43-year-old Chia Kok Kuang, who was listed on Datasonic’s website as its head of chip operating system and application department. “Mr Chia has ventured into a broad range of engineering and software realms throughout his 18 years of career development,” Datasonic said in its filing. Chia specializes in security and identity technology and is responsible for leading the R&D department on design and development of solutions related to identity management, border control, deep learning, and biometric technologies, among others, it added.
Meanwhile, Razali, 62, quit the board “to pursue other interests”. Razali’s alternate director Safian Mohd Yunus, meanwhile was appointed executive director in Datasonic.
Safian, an IT engineer by training, served companies like MCI Worldcom, Sprint Corp and Jaring in the early days of his career. He was also involved in planning of the TPMNet network migration activities, Datasonic said. Safian holds a 4.29% indirect interest in Datasonic.
Shares of Datasonic traded up 4.5 sen or 8.57% to close at 57 sen today, giving the company a market capitalisation of RM1.52 billion.