DATAPRP (8338) DATAPREP HOLDINGS BHD to provide integrated solution technology for Covid-19 screening
KUALA LUMPUR (March 12): Dataprep Holdings Bhd, whose share price rocketed from 16.5 sen on Feb 11 to RM3.16 within a month, announced today that its subsidiary, Dataprep (M) Sdn Bhd has signed a Memorandum of Collaboration (MoC) with an IT consulting and services provider company Asia Coding Centre Sdn Bhd for provision of integrated solution technology for Covid-19 screening.
About two weeks ago on March 1, Dataprep told the regulator that it was not aware of any corporate development which caused the meteoric rise in its share price when it was queried by Bursa Malaysia.
In its filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Dataprep said under the MoC, its subsidiary and Asia Coding will work as a strategic partner. The partnership will collaborate with each other “to undertake a project in relation to providing an integrated solution technology for Covid-19 screening to Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia (Ministry of Health (MOH))”.
The duration of the collaboration shall be effective for a period of three years from March 12, 2021, according to the filing.
However, it is not stated in the announcement if MOH has agreed to adopt the Covid-19 screening technology that the partnership is working on currently.
Dataprep said in the filing that the company does not expect a material impact on its earnings and net assets for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2021.
The announcement came two days after the stock exchange had sent a warning to investors advising them to exercise caution and make informed decisions in the trading of Dataprep’s shares.
The exchange regulator said it would not hesitate to take appropriate regulatory action to ensure fair and orderly trading of Dataprep shares.
The strong rally on Dataprep’s share price has made many jaws drop and has prompted the investing fraternity to ponder what had driven up the stock price of this loss-making company. Still, the stock climbed 28% or 9.7% with 37.88 million shares changing hands, valuing the company at RM1.93 billion.
The controlling shareholder of Dataprep is Wardah Communication Sdn Bhd holding a 44.81% stake, while Widad Business Group Sdn Bhd owns a 8.81% stake, according to Bloomberg data. Widad Business Group, which is also the controlling shareholder of Widad Group Bhd, emerged as a substantial shareholder of Dataprep in late September last year.
http://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/dataprep-provide-integrated-solution-technology-covid19-screening
