KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — Datasonic Group Bhd reported a 38 per cent year-on-year decline in net profit for the third quarter of 2018 in results release today.
The firm attributed the drop from RM14.62 million in the previous year to RM9 million in the 2018 period to “no deliveries of secure ID and consumables as compared to the corresponding quarter.”
Datasonic said it was optimistic, however, that the financial results for the fourth quarter ending 31 March 2019 will be satisfactory.
The firm was implicated in former deputy prime minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi’s corruption charges last October.
Zahid was charged with allegedly receiving RM6 million from Datasonic's director Chew Ben Ben in April 2017, which allegedly resulted in the group's Datasonic Technologies Sdn Bhd (DTSB) being appointed via purported “direct negotiation” with the Home Ministry to supply 12.5 million chips in Malaysia's polycarbonate passports' biodata page over the course of five years.
Datanosic has since placed Chew’s 18 million shares in a trust account.
