KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 7): Karex Bhd chairman Tun Arshad Ayub has purchased more shares in the condom maker, whose share price has slipped to its lowest in over a year after announcing its first annual net loss in end-September, where it has been hovering since.

The civil retiree raised his direct shareholding in the group to 1.482% or 15.607 million shares, after he acquired 97,500 shares on Oct 6 at 42 sen each, Karex's filing with Bursa Malaysia on Thursday showed. Arshad also has an indirect stake of 0.494% or 5.2 million shares in Karex.

The latest transaction came two days after he bought 100,000 shares on Oct 4 at the same price, which raised his direct shareholding then to 1.472%.

The last time Arshad bought Karex shares was seven months ago, on March 4, when he raised his direct shareholding in Karex to 1.463%, after buying 260,000 Karex shares at 64 sen each. Two days before that, he bought 50,000 shares at 62 sen each.

Karex’s share price fell to 42.5 sen — its lowest since April 2020 — on Sept 30, a day after the world's largest condom maker reported its first full-year net loss on record, which it blamed on unavoidable operational expenses arising from the lockdown and higher distribution expenses.

It posted a net loss of RM1.02 million for the financial year ended June 30, 2021 (FY21), compared with a net profit of RM228,000 for FY20, despite a 6.26% increase in revenue to RM419.82 million from RM395.07 million, on stronger condom sales in the Americas and Asia.

Its share price settled unchanged at 42.5 sen on Thursday, for a market capitalisation of RM448 million, after 575,000 shares changed hands.