Top Glove tries its hand in HK

摘要

TOP GLOVE, the world's largest manufacturer of medical rubber gloves, is seeking to capitalise on the heightened demand for its products amid the coronavirus pandemic to raise as much as US$2bn through a secondary listing in Hong Kong. The company is already listed in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, yet last week hired Citigroup, CICC and UBS to work on the new listing, which it is aiming to launch in the next six to nine months. At its current valuation of US$18bn, the required minimum 10% float would indicate a USS1.8bn. "With its huge market capitalisation, Top Glove has a decent chance of gaining investor interest in a crowded market like Hong Kong," a banker working on the transaction said. "Moreover, we don't expect liquidity to fall in both Malaysia and Singapore as the sector is now an investor favourite." Top Glove's planned listing would be a record from a South-East Asian company on the Hong Kong stock exchange, beating Singapore-based BOC Aviation's US$1.1bn IPO in 2016. Hong Kong's last major listing from Malaysia was for funeral services company Nirvana Asia, which raised US$261m in 2014.