A stock with nine lives: The story of Dataprep
By Cheah Chor Sooi
3 hours ago
in Featured, Markets, Top

DATAPREP Holdings Bhd surely possesses a feline-like nature – nothing to do with the attribute of being a perfect household pet but the adage of “nine lives” often linked to the creature.

The stock price of the information technology which has halved in recent times after hitting an all-time high of RM4.13 on March 16 in view of heavy profit taking – ever since its meteoric rise from a mere 16.5 sen on Feb 11 – has been rejuvenated.

Having plummeted to a low of 72.5 sen on April 13 as panic dumping crept in, the share price of Dataprep began somehow to re-energise almost immediately as evident by its yesterday’s closing at RM2 for a 46 sen or 29.8% gain amid a hefty volume of 142.39 mil shares.

Such momentum has not been broken as the stock seems to re-test yesterday’s closing price once again. At 11.31am, Dataprep was down 2 sen or 1% at RM1.98 with 31.58 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM1.122 bil.

Stock value aside, the stock has battled past an unusual market activity (UMA) query by Bursa Malaysia on March 2 over a sharp rise in its share price and trading volume – to which the company claimed that it was unaware of circumstances leading to the magnanimous rise of its share price

But with the UMA query failing to quell interest in the stock – as the stock resumed its meteoric rise – the market regulator resorted to serve ‘a red card’ on the counter on March 10 via the issuance of an advice urging investors to exercise caution and make informed decisions in the trading of Dataprep shares.

“The exchange will not hesitate to take appropriate regulatory action to ensure fair and orderly trading of Dataprep shares,” the market regulator pointed out in a statement.

For its FY2020, Dataprep extended its net loss to RM9.78 mil from RM5.87 mil in the same period a year ago although its revenue was slightly higher at RM36.22 mil (FY2019: RM28.92 mil).

On March 18, the company was issued with a query by Bursa Malaysia with regard to a memorandum of collaboration for strategic partnership inked between its wholly owned subsidiary Dataprep (M) Sdn Bhd and Asia Coding Centre Sdn Bhd on March 12.

Interestingly, Dataprep announced via Bursa Malaysia filing two rounds of Employees’ Share Options Scheme (ESOS) exercise on March 19 and April 16 entailing 4.58 million and 531,500 shares respectively at an issue price of 17 sen/share.

A darling among retail investors during its heydays, Dataprep which was listed in 1991 had earned the distinction of being the first Malaysian information communications technology (ICT) company to be listed on the local bourse. – April 20, 2021