KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 31): Datasonic Group Bhd says today the Home Affairs Ministry (KDN) has sought to change the scope of a RM318.75 million contract the latter awarded in December 2015.

Under the change of scope, the total quantity of passport chips to be supplied by Datasonic will be cut from 12.5 million chips to 11 million chips, bringing the amount to RM280.5 million.

It will now include maintenance services of hardware and software for the autogate and chips and the maintenance services for equipment and application of public key infrastructure and public key directory, amounting to RM38.25 milion, not included in the contract's original scope.

In a bourse filing today, Datasonic said its wholly-owned subsidiary Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd has received and accepted the letter of change of scope from KDN in respect of the contract with no change to the contract sum.

The RM318.75 million contract was awarded to Datasonic on Dec 15, 2015 to supply 12.5 million of passport chips for a period of five years from Dec 1, 2016 to Nov 30, 2021.

"The contract has been contributing positively towards the group's earnings and net assets per share since the commencement of the contract on Dec 1, 2016 and the financial years thereafter," said Datasonic.

"The new scope of works is expected to contribute positively towards the future earnings and net assets per share of Datasonic Group for the financial year ending March 31, 2020 and the financial years thereafter for the duration of the contract," it added.

Datasonic shares ended the morning session down 7 sen or 4.46% to RM1.50, with 15.46 million shares done. Its market capitalisation stood at RM2.02 billion.