ADVERTISEMENT

Malaysian Stock Surges After Company Founder Apologizes to Najib

Malaysian Stock Surges After Company Founder Apologizes to Najib

(Bloomberg) -- It’s never too late to say sorry.

One of the world’s largest glovemakers Supermax Corp. is rallying after its founder Stanley Thai apologized to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak for vocally supporting the opposition in the nation’s last general election five years ago.

Malaysian Stock Surges After Company Founder Apologizes to Najib

Supermax surged as much as 6.9 percent in Kuala Lumpur after Thai apologized in a press conference over the weekend. The Star on Saturday cited Thai as saying he realized it was wrong for him as a businessman to be involved in politics.

Malaysian Stock Surges After Company Founder Apologizes to Najib

“As a member of the business community I like to see political stability,” Thai said at the media briefing. “Businesses operating in Malaysia will continue to prosper with the sound economic policy of the ruling government that is led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib.”

This isn’t the only issue Thai has had to deal with. He was sentenced to a five-year jail term and fined 5 million ringgit ($1.3 million) for insider trading in November and is currently appealing against the conviction and sentencing.

Even without Thai’s ‘mea culpa’ speech, Supermax has been having a good 2018 so far -- the stock had gained 30 percent this year through Friday amid strong fourth-quarter results reported in February.

To contact the reporter on this story: Choong En Han in Kuala Lumpur at echoong6@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Divya Balji at dbalji1@bloomberg.net, Shamim Adam

©2018 Bloomberg L.P.