TOP Global' s executive director and controlling shareholder Sukmawati Widjaja on Friday made a voluntary conditional cash offer for all the issued and paid-up ordinary shares of the mainboard-listed property group at S$0.39 apiece.

 

The offer was made through Mdm Sukmawati' s wholly-owned investment holding company SW Investment Holding, with a view to exercising its rights of compulsory acquisition and subsequently delisting Top Global from the Singapore Exchange.

 

Mdm Sukmawati is a director of SW Investment Holding together with her son, Hano Maeloa. Both own shares amounting to 86.96 per cent of Top Global as of April 30.

 

Mdm Sukmawati, who also goes by Oei Su Hoa, is the younger sister of prominent investor Oei Hong Leong. She was previously executive chairman of Top Global up until Dec 2, 2019. She also co-founded the family-controlled Sinar Mas Group with her late father, Eka Tjipta Widjaja.

 

In the offer announcement filed by CIMB on behalf of SW Investment, the bank highlighted that the offer price of S$0.39 represents a 1.3 per cent premium when benchmarked against Top Global' s last traded price per share of 38.5 Singapore cents on April 29.

 

It also represents a 0.3 per cent, 7.4 per cent, 10.2 per cent and 17.8 per cent premium over the volume-weighted average price (VWAP) per share for the one-month, three-month, six-month and twelve-month periods up to and including the last trading day, respectively.

 

CIMB said it believes the offer presents shareholders with an opportunity to realise their investment Top Global' s shares at a premium over their historical trading prices, without incurring brokerage and other trading costs.

 

According to CIMB, such an opportunity may not otherwise be possible given the shares' historical thin trading liquidity before Mdm Sukmawati began acquiring Top Global shares - including through an off-market transaction on March 10 where she acquired 26,023,193 shares of the company. At S$0.39 per share, the married deal was " a significant premium to the prevailing market price of the shares" on that date and between March 11 and April 29, noted the bank.

 

Furthermore, the offerer believes that privatising Top Global would provide it more flexibility to manage the company' s business and its subsidiaries, as well as to pursue and implement its business strategies and other options for the group.

 

The offer is final and will not be revised.

 

In March 2017, Mdm Sukmawati launched a bid to take Top Global private at the offer price of S$0.33 per share through her private investment vehicle, SW International Holding.

 

Shares of Top Global last closed at 38.5 Singapore cents on Thursday before the company called for a trading halt pending the latest offer announcement.

 

On April 9, Top Global executive director and controlling shareholder, Sukmawati Widjaja, acquired 112,000 shares of the company for a consideration of S$43,657.

 

At 39.0 cents per share, this increased her total interest in the real estate development, hospitality and leisure business from 86.92 per cent to 86.96 per cent.

 

In a series of acquisitions, Mdm Sukmawati has increased her interest in Top Global from 77.40 per cent prior to March 10.

 

She was previously the executive chairman of Top Global from March 12, 2010 to Dec 2, 2019.

 

She also co-founded the family- controlled Sinar Mas Group with her late father, Eka Tjipta Widjaja.

 

On April 7, Top Global executive director and controlling shareholder, Sukmawati Widjaja, acquired 2,472,700 shares of the company for a consideration of S$964,233.

 

At 39.0 cents per share, this increased Mdm Sukmawati' s total interest in the real estate development, hospitality and leisure business from 86.16 per cent to 86.92 per cent.

 

In a series of acquisitions, Mdm Sukmawati has increased her interest in Top Global from 77.40 per cent prior to March 10.

 

Mdm Widjaja was previously the executive chairman of Top Global from March 12, 2010 to Dec 2, 2019. She also co-founded the family controlled Sinar Mas Group with her late father, Eka Tjipta Widjaja.

 

Between March 19 and 24, Top Global executive director and controlling shareholder, Sukmawati Widjaja, acquired 1,172,000 shares of the company for a consideration of S$429,634.

 

At an average price of 36.7 cents per share, this increased her total interest in Top Global from 85.76 per cent to 86.12 per cent.

 

Note that the acquisition of 824,300 shares at 35.3 cents per share between March 11 and 15 took her total interest in the company to 85.76 per cent, and the acquisition of 26,023,193 shares at 39.0 cents per share on March 10 took her total interest to 85.50 per cent (from 77.40 per cent).

 

Between March 11 and 15, Top Global executive director and controlling shareholder, Sukmawati Widjaja, acquired 824,300 shares of the company for a consideration of S$290,774.

 

At an average price of 35.3 cents per share, this increased her total interest in Top Global from 85.50 per cent to 87.76 per cent.

 

This followed her acquisition of 26,023,193 shares at 39.0 cents per share on March 10.

 

On March 10, Top Global executive director and controlling shareholder, Sukmawati Widjaja, acquired 26,023,193 shares of the company for a consideration of S$10,149,045.

 

At 39.0 cents per share, the married deal increased Mdm Sukmawati' s total interest in Top Global from 77.40 per cent to 85.50 per cent.

 

On Feb 26, Top Global reported that its operating performance for FY20 (ended Dec 31) was broadly in line with the guidance provided on Feb 10.

 

For its FY20, Top Global' s S$18.6 million gross profit was a 38 per cent decrease from FY19, with lower gross profit margins contributing to the FY20 net loss of S$16.0 million.

 

Appointed executive chairman of Top Global in March 2010, Mdm Sukmawati was re-designated executive director in December 2019.

 

She also co-founded the family-controlled Sinar Mas Group with her late father, Eka Tjipta Widjaja and during her term as the vice-chairman, she was instrumental in the advancement of the group' s lead as one of Indonesia' s top conglomerates.

 

While property development continues to account for be the major proportion of Top Global' s revenues, the group is dedicated to becoming a one-stop smart solutions provider to small and mid-sized hospitality businesses.

 

In a 10-in-10 interview with the Singapore Exchange Research Team last year, Top Global management noted that it hoped to see the expansion of its smart solutions business (under the hospitality management segment) over the next five years, providing recurring and growing revenues and profit margins for the group.

 

For its FY20 revenues, the property development business contributed 63 per cent, with the hospitality management business contributing 28 per cent, a marked change from respective contributions of 92 per cent and 6 per cent in FY15.

[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia' s Top Glove Corp expects deliveries to be delayed and sales to fall below its forecasts after thousands of positive Covid-19 tests among its workers forced the world' s biggest rubber glove maker to shutter some factory operations.

 

The firm said some deliveries could be delayed by four weeks and new orders could take longer to process, while sales could fall 3 per cent short of its projections for the 2021 financial year.

 

Its shares were down by as much as 7.5 per cent on Tuesday.

 

" To minimise the impact on our customers, we are allocating sales orders to unaffected factories and rescheduling deliveries where possible," it said in a statement.

 

Top Glove' s shares, which have soared this year as global demand for protective gear has surged in the pandemic, slipped after the government said it would close 28 of the firm' s factory buildings in phases to screen and quarantine workers in the Klang area, about 40 km west of Kuala Lumpur.

 

The company did not give a breakdown of how many factory sites were affected by the closure of the 28 factory buildings.

 

Top Glove previously said it had shut 16 buildings and reduced capacity at 12 more.

 

The firm has about 16,000 factory employees and runs 47 factories in Malaysia, Thailand, China and Vietnam, with 36 producing gloves. Its main markets are Europe and North America.

 

Shares in the company, which commands a quarter of the global latex glove market, are still more than four times higher than at the start of the year as the firm has racked up record profits this year amid sky-rocketing demand for its products.

 

As a nation, Malaysia makes just under two thirds of the world' s rubber gloves, the Malaysian Rubber Glove Manufacturers Association said. Hartalega Holdings and Supermax Corp are Malaysia' s other two top glovemakers.

 

Malaysia' s Health Ministry has reported sharp rises since last week in infections in the Klang area where Top Glove has factories and dormitories.

 

The ministry said on Tuesday total infections in the Klang cluster reached 4,036 out of 5,777 people screened. It did not specify how many of those were Top Glove workers.

 

The government, battling the nation' s largest cluster since the pandemic began, erected barbed wire fences in front of the workers' hostels in the Klang district on Tuesday. Checkpoints were staffed by police and soldiers.

 

MIDF Research analyst Ng Bei Shan said the closures would reduce Top Glove' s production capacity by 50 per cent and a two-week closure could cut net income by 4 per cent in fiscal 2021 if average selling prices were unchanged. But she said tight supply could push prices up.

 

Ng said the closures had not affected the company' s orders and was maintaining her earnings estimates for fiscal 2021.

 

Two other analysts predicted a 2 per cent hit to annual profit.

 

One analyst said Top Glove' s main rivals did not have spare capacity to increase supply to meet a shortfall, saying Hartalega and Supermax " are already running at best full utilisation rate."

 

THE world' s largest glove manufacturer Top Glove Corp is looking to undertake a bonus issue on the basis of two bonus shares for every one existing share held.

 

The exercise will see up to 5.48 billion bonus shares issued to shareholders whose names appear in the company' s record of depositors on an entitlement date to be determined.

 

Top Glove on Monday said the proposed bonus issue is meant to reward shareholders and allow them to have greater participation in the equity of the group in terms of the number of shares, while retaining their percentage of equity interest held.

 

Lim Wee Chai, executive chairman of Top Glove, said that adding and creating value for shareholders has always been a business priority.

 

" This will also enable us to increase the number of shares in issue, which is expected to create more liquidity and marketability for Top Glove shares," he added.

 

The board of directors is thus of the view that the proposed bonus issue is the most appropriate avenue to reward existing shareholders while also enhancing the company' s capital base. 

 

The proposed two-for-one bonus issue is subject to shareholders' approval at an extraordinary general meeting to be convened.

 

For illustrative purposes, based on Top Glove shares' three-month volume-weighted average market price of RM13.38 up to July 6, the theoretical ex-bonus share price of the stock is about RM4.46.

 

Shares of Top Glove on the Malaysia bourse were trading at RM24.42 as at 12.29pm on Monday, up RM1.44 or 6.3 per cent.

 

Meanwhile on the Singapore Exchange, the dual-listed counter climbed S$0.76 or 10.1 per cent to trade at S$8.23 as at 2.09pm.

 

Top Glove said its balance sheet remains " robust" , with a net cash position of RM284 million (S$92.7 million) and a shareholders' equity of RM4.7 billion as at May 31, 2020.

 

Its last bonus issue was completed in October 2018, when its share price had reached about RM11.50. The company has completed seven bonus issues and one share split since its listing in 2001.

 

Separately, the US Customs last week issued a detention order on Top Glove' s disposable gloves, possibly over forced labour concerns.

 

The company' s shares, along with other glove counters, saw " intriguing trading patterns" last week as well as exuberance tempered by worries over the US detention order.