Shares of Malaysia’s Top Glove, the world’s largest medical glove maker, have fallen by more than 50% this year as the rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations worldwide dampened demand for gloves.
“Like in every business, there’re always highs and lows. And you cannot expect super profits to continue for a long, long time. So, we’re glad that we had a good run last year,” Lee Kim Meow, Top Glove’s managing director, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Monday.
The company on Friday announced a 48% year-on-year drop in net profit to 608 million Malaysian ringgit ($145.11 million) in the June-to-August period. Revenue was around 2.1 billion ringgit, 32% lower than a year ago.
The results “were softer on the back of normalising demand, following mass vaccine rollout on a global scale, leading to lower sales volume and [average selling prices], which were not matched by a corresponding reduction in raw material prices,” Top Glove said in its financial statement.
Like in every business, there’re always highs and lows. And you cannot expect super profits to continue for a long, long time.
Lee Kim Meow
Managing Director, Top Glove
In addition, the company’s sales were hit by a U.S. import ban due to allegations of forced labor practices. The ban was lifted earlier this month.
Top Glove shares in Malaysia fell more than 5% on Monday, extending its year-to-date losses to over 52%.
Other Malaysian glove stocks also declined, with Hartalega, Supermax and Kossan registering losses of between 3% and 5% on Monday.
In comparison, the benchmark stock index FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Index dropped less than 1% on the same day.
Last year, Top Glove shares jumped 290% as it reported record sales and profits, thanks to surging demand for gloves during the pandemic.
Hong Kong stock listing
Lee told CNBC the company still wants to go ahead with the listing. Top Glove already has a primary listing in Malaysia and a secondary listing in Singapore.
“We felt that for the purpose of long-term business, for the purpose of moving ahead and looking at the advantages of having a listing in Hong Kong, we felt that it’s something that we have to go through,” said the managing director.
“A listing exercise in Hong Kong will put us in a good spot to be where we want to be in order to thrive for our dream to be a Fortune Global 500 company in the year 2030,” he added.
Stay connected with us on social media platform for instant update click here to join our Twitter, & Facebook
We are now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@TechiUpdate) and stay updated with the latest Technology headlines.
For all the latest Health News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsAzi is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
