KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 15): Top Glove Corp Bhd's executive chairman Tan Sri Dr Lim Wee Chai bought a total of 3.1 million shares in his own capacity on the open market yesterday. The block of shares cost him RM19.98 million.

Top Glove, whose share price took a nosedive yesterday, said in a filing with Bursa Malaysia today that Lim bought the shares in two transactions yesterday. Some 1.56 million shares were bought at RM6.39 per share, while another 1.54 million shares were transacted at RM6.49 per share.

In less than a week, Lim, who is also the controlling shareholder, has spent RM49.75 million on buying Top Glove shares. He bought 4.28 million Top Glove shares for RM29.77 million last Thursday.

Lim's direct interest is at 26.17% and indirect stake is at 8.63%.

Besides Lim, two other parties also mopping up shares in the world's largest rubber glove maker on the open market were Tropicana Corp Bhd and Top Glove itself.

Tropicana announced that it spent an additional RM20.05 million to buy 3.07 million Top Glove shares via its wholly-owned subsidiary Desiran Reality Sdn Bhd yesterday.

However, Tropicana did not disclose the transaction price. Based on a back-of-an-envelope calculation, the property developer paid an average of RM6.53 per share for the block of shares, which represents a 0.04% stake in Top Glove.

Tropicana on Dec 4 bought 11.25 million Top Glove shares worth RM78.47 million. Following the latest purchase, the property developer's stake in Top Glove increased to 0.18% or 14.32 million shares.

Lim is also the chairman and substantial shareholder of Tropicana. He holds a 11.07% stake in the property firm.

In an announcement to Bursa, Tropicana noted that Lim is deemed interested in the additional share acquisitions by virtue of him being the chairman and major shareholder of Tropicana as well as the executive chairman and major shareholder of Top Glove. "As such, he has abstained and will continue to abstain from all deliberations and voting in relation to the additional acquisitions," said Tropicana.

Top Glove also bought back some 576,900 shares worth RM3.63 million at RM6.30 per share yesterday. The group has spent RM123.5 million on share buy-back this month so far.

The share buy-back scheme has cost Top Glove a total of RM1.28 billion since September, of which RM354.74 million was spent in September, and RM802.55 million in November.

In contrast, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) continued to trim its stake in Top Glove.

A separate filing showed EPF disposed of a total of 846,400 shares last Thursday, after the provident fund sold 3.42 million shares on Dec 9 and another 12 million shares on Dec 8.

The EPF re-emerged as Top Glove's substantial shareholder on Sept 21 with a 5.05% stake. The fund subsequently raised the stake to 6.63% on Nov 20, before it started trimming its shareholding.

Following the latest disposals, the provident fund's shareholding in Top Glove shrank to 429.39 million shares or a 5.36% stake.

A majority of analysts who track the glove manufacturer are bullish on its prospects with 17 of them having a "buy" or equivalent rating, while five have "hold" calls and one rated "sell". The average 12-month target price is at RM8.99, according to Bloomberg.

Top Glove's share price rebounded today after it slid 8.7% or 60 sen yesterday. The stock went up 11 sen or 1.75% to RM6.41, with some 35.67 million shares traded. At the current price, Top Glove is valued at RM51.4 billion. Its share price has surged 308% year-to-date from RM1.57.