Malaysia's Top Glove Corp Bhd has postponed a plan to raise $347 million via a Hong Kong listing as Russia's invasion of Ukraine weighs on investor sentiment and heightens market volatility, said a person with direct of the matter.
The firm, which benefited from demand for disposable rubber gloves during the COVID-19 pandemic, has a primary listing in Kuala Lumpur and secondary in Singapore, and had planned the Hong Kong listing to broaden its investor base.
The person declined to be identified as the information was not public. Top Glove did not respond to a request for comment.
The glove maker initially aimed to raise $1 billion in what would have been a dual primary listing.
Shareholders in December approved the issuance of up to 793.5 million shares which at the current price of 1.83 ringgit would have raised about $347 million.
Top Glove had planned to launch the deal in February but volatile markets surrounding the invasion prompted the delay, the person said.
Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation".
Top Glove's Kuala Lumpur-listed stock has fallen 29.3% in 2022. The firm will publish second-quarter earnings on Wednesday.
A growing number of Asian share sales are being put on hold as markets remain roiled by the invasion.
MSCI's broadest index of world shares has dropped 13% year-to-date, as geopolitical uncertainty causes investors to flee equities and pile into safer assets.
Chinese fast fashion retailer Shein postponed its U.S. listing ambitions due to the upheaval, Reuters previously reported.
Life Insurance Corp's plan to raise $8 billion before March-end in India's largest-ever initial public offering (IPO) is also now in doubt.
"The prospects of ever increasing sanctions on Russia, the ongoing crackdown on real estate, tech and other sectors in China, passing of the peak of loose monetary policy in the West and it all portends to a rather quiet period for equity capital market activity until the equity and commodity markets settle down," Sumeet Singh, Aequitas Research director who publishes on Smartkarma, told Reuters.
Hong Kong has recorded the slowest start to the year for IPOs and secondary listings in six years with $1.17 billion raised in 2022, Refinitiv data showed.
That compares with $10.16 billion in the same period of 2021 and the lowest since 2016.
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