The Malaysian government has ruled out the potential acquisition of NexG (KLSE:NEXG) subsidiary Datasonic Technologies, which provides citizen identity services, including the country's passports and national identity cards, media reported over the weekend, citing a statement by the National Security Council.
The company's shares plunged over 14% in Monday's morning trade.
While saying that the government was not going ahead with the potential acquisition, the NSC said it will continue to explore effective strategies to safeguard the sovereignty of the people's identity, while ensuring value for public spending.
NexG on Friday had informed the stock exchange that the government was considering a potential 7.5 billion ringgit acquisition of Datasonic.