KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 21): Top Gloves Corp Bhd, which said earlier this year it would be investing RM100 million to set up a new plant to produce vinyl gloves in Vietnam, announced it has incorporated a subsidiary there for the purpose of manufacturing gloves and other products.

The subsidiary that was incorporated on Dec 19 as a one-member limited liability company has a charter capital of VND 136.70 billion (about RM24.42 million), Top Glove said in a stock exchange filing today. The subsidiary is known as Top Glove Vietnam Company Ltd. 

In March this year, Top Glove executive chairman Tan Sri Dr Lim Wee Chai said the group was adding RM100 million to its capital spending for the current financial year to expand its vinyl glove production to Vietnam instead of to China, as the cost of production in the latter was getting expensive. The manufacturing expansion will potentially include latex gloves as well.

Lim said the Vietnam factory, to be developed on a 20-acre plot, will feature 10 production lines in the initial stage to produce at least 1.5 billion pieces of vinyl gloves annually. Currently, the group produces 2.2 billion pieces per annum.

Shares price of Top Glove rose 11 sen or 2.05% to close at RM5.47, giving it a market capitalisation of RM14.01 billion. The counter saw 9.46 million shares traded.