‘Spreading to the rubber glove sector, the Russia-Ukraine crisis is getting worse.’
Top Glove Corp Bhd Malaysia had to postpone plans to raise US $ 347 million or RM1.45 billion through listing in Hong Kong due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis and market uncertainty.
For the record, the rubber glove maker, which is listed in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore, has planned a listing on the Hong Kong exchange to expand its investment base.
It aims to raise $ 1 billion in listings on the 2 major Southeast Asian exchanges.
Then last December, shareholders approved the issuance of 793.5 million shares at a current price of RM1.83 to raise $ 357 million and they plan to launch the deal in February.
However, due to uncertain market conditions as a result of Russia's attack on Ukraine, the company had to postpone the deal.
Meanwhile, Top Glove shares on Bursa Malaysia are down 29.3% in 2022 and they will publish a 2nd quarter report on Wednesday, March 9.
Overall, the stock market has been severely affected by the turmoil in Europe with MSCI’s broad index of world stocks plunging 13% this year so far.
Chinese fashion retailer Shein had to postpone its listing in the United States (US) while Life Insurance Corp’s plans to raise 8 billion before the end of March in India’s largest initial public offering (IPO) also remain unrealized.
According to Sumeet Singh, director of Aequitas Research, in addition to sanctions on Russia, crackdowns by the Chinese government on real estate, technology and other sectors as well as monetary policy continue to weigh on investor sentiment and trigger market uncertainty.
Hong Kong has recorded the slowest start of 2022 for IPOs and secondary listings in 6 years with $ 1.17 billion raised so far.
