Top Glove, the largest glove maker in the world, is coming out tops in more ways than one. Within the healthcare services and pharmaceuticals sector, it has generated the best returns to share­holders and the highest growth in profit after tax, making it the overall sector winner. And with an overall score of 87%, Top Glove, led by founder and executive chairman Lim Wee Chai, is also overall Company of the Year for this year’s Billion Dollar Club.

The Malaysian company began in 1991 with just one production line but has grown rapidly over the years to operate a total of 812 lines in 37 glove factories with a combined production capacity of 100 billion pieces per year.

Top Glove has become the world market lead­er with a 26% market share. Besides Malaysia, Top Glove operates manufacturing facilities in Thailand, Vietnam and China. It also has mar­keting offices in these countries as well as the US, Germany and Brazil, and exports to over 2,000 customers in 195 countries worldwide.

The company, with a headcount of around 22,000, was listed on Bursa Malaysia and Sin­gapore Exchange in 2001 and 2016 respectively. Over the past two decades, Top Glove’s CAGR for its revenue and earnings was 28% and 38% respectively.

See also: Malaysia’s EPF trims stake in Top Glove

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With the pandemic, demand for Top Glove’s products shot through the roof, the company was able to generate a CAGR earnings growth of 74.4% for the three years taken into consid­eration for this year’s awards. Similarly, it gen­erated a weighted ROE of 31.96 times over the same period to make it the winner of this cat­egory as well.

For the most recent 9MFY2021 ended May 31, the company recorded earnings of RM7.3 billion ($2.3 billion) versus earnings of RM575 million in the year-earlier nine months. Revenue in the same period was RM14.3 billion, versus RM4.1 billion. “As we continue to work harder, smarter and faster, we also believe we will be well-posi­tioned to conclude our financial year 2021 on a healthy and positive note, and continue creat­ing value for all our stakeholders,” says Lee in his earnings commentary on June 9.

Top Glove is not the only glove maker gar­nering awards. Riverstone Holdings, another leading glove maker from Malaysia but listed in Singapore, has delivered the best weighted re­turn on equity of 39.23 times for its sharehold­ers over the three-year period this year’s BDC is measured.

The company, which was founded in 1989, has over the years set up manufacturing facili­ties in Thailand and China as well.

For 1HFY2021 ended June 30, Top Glove’s revenue increased more than trebled to near­ly RM2.1 billion from a year ago. Earnings in the same period rose more than sevenfold to RM1.04 billion, as better economies of scale and margins kicked in.

Top Glove - THE EDGE SINGAPORE

Top Glove is maintaining its earlier announced plans to install additional production capacity of up to 1.5 billion pieces per year by end of 2021. By then, Riverstone’s total production capacity would hit 12 billion pieces a year. Despite the bullish prospects, the company is sounding a note of caution. “Macroeconomic headwinds such as US dollar fluctuations, volatile raw ma­terial prices and increase in overall production costs continue to remain challenging for the group. Covid-19 and movement control restric­tions in Malaysia could also pose an additional challenge to the group,” the company notes.

Top Glove - THE EDGE SINGAPORE