“Our numbers are improving in terms of lower debts based on our existing businesses,” said CEO Saify Akhtar.
“Currently, we are also looking at other profitable businesses and some acquisitions where we are still negotiating and in due course, we will make the announcement,” he said after the company’s 38th annual general meeting (AGM) here today.
Saify said since the company pivoted into the digital space three years ago, after acquiring a 51% stake in Television Airtime Services (TAS) in 2020, the company has been looking into upscaling its existing businesses.
This includes Dapat Vista (M) Sdn Bhd that operates MyPay Coin Conversion, eJamin, MyPay Mobile, MySMS and MyPay Payment Gateway. Dapat Vista is an 80% subsidiary of TAS as at Dec 31, 2022.
Saify said the company plans to tap into the public sector, where hundreds of government agencies are looking to digitalise and improve their services to the people.
“We want to accelerate that process which is sustainable. Recently our eJamin (service) won an innovation product award from the Prime Minister’s Office.
“We want to push our innovative products into other government agencies, and if we are successful, the prospects are good for us,” he said.
Saify said the company would also collaborate with local startups, among others, to offer services in helping the government’s digitalisation – such as employing cloud technology to ease file storage and document submission.
“There are so many things that we can look at in order to digitalise. The digitalisation effort that we need in Malaysia can’t be undertaken just by the public sector but also by the private sector.
“More importantly, we hope that stakeholders (from top to bottom-level personnel) are convinced of the applications and will implement them at every level in their agencies,” he added.
Following the disposal of its entire stake in its China-based textile subsidiary Be Top Group Ltd in August 2022, Pertama Digital is reclassifying its business as a technology business, which it said would open up more opportunities particularly among government bodies and local startups.
Pertama Digital fell into the red, with a net loss of RM1.77 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2023 against a net profit of RM5.08 million a year ago, hindered by higher operating expenses.
Its quarterly revenue plunged 73.6% to RM1.35 million from RM5.11 million previously.