Top Glove stocks see a turnaround after owner acquire shares

TOP Glove Bhd has led a rebound of the Big Four glove stocks after three consecutive sessions of sell-off.

At 3.22pm, the world’s largest glove maker was up 10 sen or 1.66% at RM6.11 with 17.79 million shares traded, thus valuing the company at RM50.11 bil.

Soon after commencing trading at 10am following an hour trading halt, Top Glove’s share price hit an intraday high of RM6.23 before consolidating at the RM6.08 range,

According to a Bursa Malaysia filing, trading in Top Glove’s shares (as well as its structured warrants) would be halted for an hour between 9am and 10am today.

“Your attention is drawn to Top Gloves announcements dated 29 December 2020,” read the announcement.

Yesterday (Dec 29), the company’s executive chairman and founder Tan Sri Dr Lim Wee Chai mopped up 3.29 million shares at an average price of RM6.07/share.

Top Glove which shed 25 sen or 3.99% to RM6.01 was traded between a range of RM6.00 and intraday high of RM6.28 with 41.96 million shares exchanging hands.

The transaction which cost RM19.97 mil raised Lim’s direct interest in Top Glove to 2.1 billion shares or 26.2% while his indirect stake currently stands at 691.82 million shares or 8.62%.

Lim last acquired Top Glove’s shares on Dec 14 with a total of 3.1 million shares with an average price of between RM6.39 and RM6.49 for at a cost of RM19.98 mil.

On Dec 9 and 10, he spent a further RM29.78 mil to purchase 4.28 million shares in the company with an average price of RM6.93 to RM6.99.

This is on top of the company’s own share buyback exercise which has raised its net outstanding treasury shares to 178.36 million or an equivalent of a 2.18% stake.

As of Dec 15, Top Glove has now spent RM1.28 bil on share buybacks since September with RM354.74 mil spent in September and RM802.55 mil in November.

While Lim is on an acquisition trial, a more alarming trend for the company is that of the disposal of Top Glove shares by the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).

Suffice to say that between Nov 26 and Dec 29 alone, the retirement fund has reduced its stake in Top Glove from 6.03% or 484.82 million shares to 5.11% or 409.93 million shares.

This means that EPF is a mere 0.11% away from relinquishing its position as a substantial shareholder of the company. – Dec 30, 2020

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