Malaysia’s best-known commodity is powering fortunes of Top Glove tycoon
- The gloves are off as billionaire Lim Wee Chai’s Top Glove moves up the stock exchange, beating banks along the way
- It has been a tremendous journey for Malaysia’s 14th richest person and his wife, who started their firm in 1991 with their entire savings of US$42,228
Businessman Lim Wee Chai is certainly the man of the hour. He is going places no Malaysian tycoons have.
On Thursday, Top Glove was in second spot, but it slipped to third when Bursa closed on Friday, with Public Bank taking over.
Pole position is still Maybank’s, which had a market capitalisation of 88.244 billion ringgit (US$20.7 billion), against Top Glove’s at 70.466 billion ringgit (US$16.5 billion) on Thursday. Maybank’s share price closed at 7.85 ringgit (US$1.84) on Friday against Top Glove’s 25.44 ringgit (US$5.97).
Top Glove was at No 9 on the Singapore Exchange on Thursday, outranking bigger names like Singapore Airlines and Capitaland Ltd.
Top Glove is expected to create Malaysian history soon by announcing the biggest jump in quarterly profit for a listed company.
The surge of the company’s share price is being watched closely by many Malaysians. Likewise, Lim’s increasing wealth, which has grown by millions by the week.
