After months of speculation, the property developer Mah Sing has revealed its venture into rubber glove manufacturing.

Founder-cum-managing director Tan Sri Leong Hoy Kum is ambitious to be among the top five rubber glove makers in Malaysia with 100 production lines.

For a start, the group’s wholly-owned unit Mah Sing Healthcare Sdn Bhd will be setting up 12 glove production lines in a converted factory in Kapar, Klang, under Phase 1 of the new business. It will have an annual capacity of 3.68 billion pieces.

Speaking at a virtual press conference, Leong said that the new venture is to reduce its reliance on its property development business.

“In view of the promising global prospect of glove business, we are committed to being a long-term player and deliver greater value to our shareholders as well as strive to be one of the prominent glove manufacturers in the industry moving forward.

“We can even explore speciality gloves in the future. We are also planning to venture into other healthcare and medical device-related ventures and explore the possibility of listing our manufacturing division separately from the group to further unlock its value in the future,” said Leong.

Mah Sing needs to seek shareholder approval as the contribution from its business diversification is expected to contribute at least 25% of its net profit.

Analysts and fund managers do not rule out Mah Sing’s chance of succeeding in making the rubber glove business its second income source in the future. However, they said it is too early to draw conclusions given the current abnormal strong demand.