KUALA LUMPUR (April 13): K-One Technology Bhd has joined the growing number of companies venturing into making products that are essential in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.   

In a filing today, the original design manufacturer and electronic manufacturing service group noted that in the last few years, it had been focusing increasingly on the medical and healthcare industry. 

“In the wake of Covid-19, it had been playing its part in supplying essential medical/healthcare goods in the likes of infusion pump (for dialysis and intravenous therapy) and thermal scanner systems for supply to hospitals,” it said. 

It added that the board has decided to expand its product portfolio in the medical and healthcare industry through venturing into the manufacturing of ventilators to supply to hospitals, in view of the shortage of the product.

K-One said it has recently obtained open source design files of a ventilator model released to interested parties by a multinational in the industry. 

The company added that it is studying the ventilator design and intends to build a prototype and expects to commence manufacturing as soon as permissible, targeting the third quarter of 2020, subject to getting the necessary approvals from the relevant authorities. 

K-One said the ventilator design is that of one of a series of models which is marketed by the multinational for a number of years. 

“It is because of the acute shortage of ventilators in the global market and the multinational’s intense sense of corporate social responsibility that it had decided to release the design of this model to interested parties for production under third party name via permissive license, to meet the high demand globally,” it added. 

K-One expects the expansion plan to have a positive impact on the group’s earnings and net asset per share for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2020, subject to obtaining the necessary approvals from the relevant authorities.  

K-One’s share price settled unchanged at 13.5 sen today, for a market capitalisation of RM98.41 million. Some 1.16 million shares were traded.

Year-to-date, the counter has fallen 33%.

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