BURSA Malaysia has forbidden any direct business transactions (DBT) involving Top Glove Corp Bhd until 4.30pm.
Citing the Bursa Trading Rule 10.10 (1), the regulator said Top Glove stocks would only be authorised for DBT at 4.30pm.
Dealers and remisiers had been reminded that the reference price for DBT upon authorisation would be the volume weighted average price from 3.30pm to 4.30pm for trade stocks and reference price for untraded stocks.
Aside from that, normal market trading has not been affected, Bursa Malaysia said.
Top Glove earlier confirmed that its wholly owned subsidiaries, Top Glove Sdn Bhd and TG Medical Sdn Bhd, had been served detention orders by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The group’s shares were suspended earlier but resumed trading at 3.30pm with its last done price at the time of writing being RM19.70.
Issued on July 15, the order is on disposable gloves manufactured by Top Glove and TG Medical.
“We are reaching out to the CBP through our office in the US to understand the issue better and work towards a speedy resolution of the matter, within an estimated two weeks,” said Top Glove, the world’s largest glove maker.
The group noted that there was a possibility the order may be related to foreign labour issues, which the company had already resolved, except for one more issue regarding retrospective payment of recruitment fees by staff to agents prior to 2019 without the company’s knowledge.
“However, Top Glove has already been bearing all recruitment fees since January 2019 when our Zero Recruitment Fee Policy was implemented,” clarified the company.
Top Glove said it has been working over the past few months on this issue, which involves extensive tracing, to establish the correct amount to be paid back to its workers on behalf of the previous agents.
“We estimate the total amount to be about RM20 mil to RM50 mil. We believe it is in the best interests of all parties to come to a solution expeditiously so that our disposable gloves can reach the parties that need it the most during this time of Covid-19,” the company said, promising updates as the situation develops. – July 16, 2020
