KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 10): MyEG Services Bhd bought back an additional two million shares of the company at 61 sen apiece for a total of RM1.22 million on Friday (Feb 10). This is the third block of shares it purchased this week.

In total, the e-government service provider has spent RM4.1 million for six million shares in its share buyback. It mopped up two million shares for RM1.43 million on Tuesday, followed by another two million shares at RM1.45 million on Thursday.

The company’s cumulative net outstanding treasury shares stands at 45.6 million, its bourse filing showed.

The share buyback comes amid a report that the Immigration Department may directly handle all immigration transactions from 2025, prompting MyEG’s share price to tumble to a two-year low of 70 sen on Tuesday, before recovering to 71.5 sen on Wednesday and Thursday.

In a note this week, CGS-CIMB said the immigration services concession contributes about RM70 million in annual revenue to MyEG, based on the latest extension worth RM208 million for three years signed in 2020.

The research house also estimated that the immigration services transactions will account for 18% to 21% of MyEG’s earnings for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2023 (FY2023) to FY2024.

MyEG has clarified that it has not held any meeting with Putrajaya on converging all immigration transactions under the government’s National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe).

NIISe is an initiative under the Ministry of Home Affairs to modernise the Immigration Department by implementing the latest digital applications to improve service delivery and strengthen safety and security at the nation’s borders.

For the first nine months of FY2022, MyEG’s net profit jumped to RM323.97 million from RM235.43 million in the previous corresponding period, boosted by the resumption of full operations of its e-service centres nationwide. Nine-month revenue, meanwhile, declined marginally to RM486.18 million from RM489.99 million amid lower demand for the quarantine services.

MyEG was the most actively traded stock on Bursa Malaysia on Friday with a volume of 787.22 million shares. The counter dropped 14.69% or 10.5 sen to 61 sen, giving the company a market value of RM4.53 billion.