For a moment, Lim Wee Chai’s ascent looked unstoppable.
His Top Glove grew larger than Malaysia’s banks, telecommunication firms and even the particular state-owned electricity business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Its share price soared 450 per cent through the first seven months of 2020 , leaving high-flyers like Moderna, Focus Video Communications Peloton Interactive and Carvana in the dust plus making Lim a billionaire several times over.
The manufacturer of one out of every four gloves in the world stated in September 2020 it expected “fresh highs” right after profit surged 1, 500 per cent.
By June 2021, as vaccines rolled out across the globe and much more competitors entered the market, that guidance shifted to a gradual decrease in selling prices. The organization vowed six months later to press ahead with an expansion, undeterred by its stock tumbling back to pre-COVID-19 levels.
Even while, the value of Lim great family’s stake in Top Glove slipped: From US$6 billion dollars at its maximum in October 2020, to US$4. 5 billion four weeks later, to US$1. 6 billion within January.
After that last month arrived the final blow: the 99 per cent dive in Top Glove’s profit, enough to put those expansion intentions of hold. The results are usually “almost close to the bottom, ” Lim mentioned.
The value of the stake is down to US$1 billion now, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.