KUALA LUMPUR (June 10): Shares of PUC Founder (MSC) Bhd fell at mid-morning today after the company said it plans to divest its biometrics division within the next two quarters, due to reduced contribution from the unit. The biometrics division involves fingerprint-verification products.

At 10.21am, PUC Founder lost 3.45% or half a sen to 14 sen with 110,000 shares done.

PUC Founder's (valuation: 1.1; fundamental: 2.15) managing director Cheong Chia Chieh yesterday said reduced contribution from the biometrics, and media and advertising divisions had weakened the company's financials.

"About 90% of our revenue come from the media and advertising division," Cheong said, after PUC Founder's annual general meeting here today.

PUC Founder's diversification into power generation will be closely watched. Cheong said the company projected a 21-year recurring income of RM1 million annually, from its proposed solar power plant in Sungai Petani, Kedah.

He said the power plant would have an initial one megawatt (MW) capacity, involving a tariff of RM1.035 per kilowatt an hour (kWh).

"The steady income from the energy sector would balance out the risks in the e-payment and mobile internet sectors. The return on investment from the energy sector is quite stable, whereas the mobile Internet plus and e-payment sectors have higher risk and growth," Cheong said.

(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.)