SINGAPORE (July 16): Top Glove shares fell 6.0% from a high of $7.64 at 9.55am to $7.18 at 11.58 as US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) placed a detention order on disposable gloves manufactured by two of the company’s subsidiaries, Top Glove Sdn Bhd and TG Medical Sdn Bhd, on July 15.
The Malaysia-based glove maker called for a trading halt at 12.35pm on Thursday, and has requested for a lifting of the halt at 3.30pm on the same day.
Top Glove says it is reaching out to CBP through its US office to “understand” the issue better. It expects the matter to be resolved within an estimated two weeks.
The company says there may be a possibility of the detention order being related to “foreign labour” issues with regard to retrospective payment of recruitment fees by its workers to agents before January 2019 without its knowledge. Top Glove says it has already begun bearing all recruitment fees since then, when its zero recruitment fee policy was implemented.
Top Glove estimates the total amount to be paid back to its workers to be between RM20 million to RM50 million ($6.5 million to $16.3 million).
