Once-unstoppable glove king loses billions after 89% stock crash

[superadmin]

KUALA LUMPUR: For a moment, Lim Wee Chai’s ascent looked unstoppable.

His Top Glove Corp grew bigger than Malaysia’s banks, telecommunications firms and even the state-owned Tenaga Nasional Bhd during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Its stock price soared 450% through the first seven months of 2020, leaving high-flyers like Moderna Inc, Zoom Video Communications Inc, Peloton Interactive Inc and Carvana Co in the dust and making Lim a billionaire several times over.

The maker of one out of every four gloves in the world said in September 2020 it expected “fresh highs” after profit surged 1,500%. By June 2021, as vaccines rolled out across the globe and more competitors entered the market, that guidance shifted to a gradual decline in selling prices. The company vowed six months later to press forward with an expansion, undeterred by its stock tumbling back to pre-Covid levels.

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