Top Glove billionaire Tan Sri Lim Wee Chai sees his wealth tumble after the company’s stock crashed from a high during the early period of 2021 when glove-related stocks were top of the leaderboard for months.
Singapore CNA which ran the story stated how Lim’s Top Glove even grew bigger than Malaysia’s banks, telecommunication companies, and state utility giant at one time. The stock price of the glove maker soared 450% through the first 7 months of 2020 leaving big names like Zoom and Moderna in the dust making him a billionaire many times over.
By June 2021, when vaccines started rolling out, more competition came into the market threatening the position of the world’s largest glove producer and subsequently guidance shifted to a gradual decline in selling prices. All this while Lim and his family’s stake in Top Glove slipped from US$6 billion at its peak in October 2020 to US$4.5 billion four months later to US$1.5 billion in January 2022.
Then June came the final blow, a 99% plunge in Top Glove profits putting all those expansion and HK listing plans on hold. “The results are close to the bottom”, Lim said. The value of his stake is now below US$1 billion Bloomberg said.
Even though the shares are down 89% from their peak, Lim received a windfall of more than US$400 million for 2021 and US$75million for 2020 as profit grew 300% each year. That compared to US$26 million in 2019, before the pandemic.
“Its 2021 financial was an extraordinary year as it was the peak of Covid-19 where gloves were essential items,” said Lim Su Hua an analyst from JF Apex Securities.
The outlook for Top Glove is “in the doldrums in the near term” she added.
