Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (March 13): Iris Corp Bhd shares faced pressure and were down as much as 13% in morning trade on Monday (March 13), as the government rumoured to have cancelled the RM1 billion National Integrated Immigration System (NIISe) due to slow progression. 

At 12:03pm, the counter pared losses to trade at 10.5 sen, down one sen or 8.7%, with a market capitalisation of RM342.61 million.

Iris saw 50.44 million shares traded; it was the fifth most actively traded stock across Bursa Malaysia.

Meanwhile, another e-government services provider, MyEG Services Bhd, was the third most actively traded stock with 73.78 million shares having crossed hands after Sapura Energy Bhd and BSL Corp Bhd.

MyEG rose as much as 5.4% in morning trade, before paring gains to trade at 76.5 sen, gaining three sen or 4.1%, giving it a market capitalisation of RM5.76 billion.

In a research note on Monday, MIDF Research said the rumoured cancellation is deemed positive development for MyEG, if the project is indeed terminated.

“Only 10% of the project has been completed, and if the cancellation is confirmed, we believe it to be a positive development, as the NIISe project is set to replace (the) myIMMs system used by the Immigration Department, which has been in operation for over 20 years.

“Conversely, the uncertainty of the NIISe project is unlikely to impede MyEG’s ability to secure another three-year extension for their e-government concession in May 2023,” said MIDF, which kept a “buy” recommendation on MyEG with an unchanged target price of RM1.00.

The current myIMMs system is outsourced to vendors, one of them MyEG. Therefore, MIDF said a termination of NIISe may benefit MyEG, as it could increase its chances of securing the extension.

“Overall, we believe the risk of immigration removal has been factored in. MyEG’s robust performance and strong track record suggest that the unresolved status of the NIISe project will have little impact on the company’s future prospects,” the research house said.

Edited BySurin Murugiah
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