Why are glovemakers Careplus moving into the electric vehicle market with GoAuto and NETA?
The COVID-19 pandemic saw a lot of fortunes disappear but also quite a number of fortunes being made overnight. One industry that experienced an unprecedented boom was the Malaysian rubber glove industry. Now that growth in that sector has leveled off, some of the players feel rather high and dry. One such player is Careplus Group Bhd, a publicly listed company that manufactures latex, sterile and nitrile gloves. The company is now entering into a joint venture with GoAuto Group Bhd, who are about to bring in some of the most affordable EVs to our market in the form of the Neta V.
Why Does GoAuto Group Need A Glovemaker?
You can read up the full structure of this joint venture on The Malaysian Reserve. From what I can deduce, Careplus will be the ones constructing the manufacturing and assembly hub infrastructure to locally-assemble Neta EVs in Malaysia. Careplus will also be appointing a financial controller AND they will provide funding and/or corporate guarantees for purchases of NETA EVs.
Essentially, Careplus probably has the capital and the financial know how to help GoAuto scale up their upcoming EV business. GoAuto is no stranger to the Malaysian car market. They’ve sold Haval vehicles here and even brought in Borgward vehicles before the company folded a second time. In both cases, GoAuto never really had the capital to expand their sales and service network very far. Now with serious Chinese players like GWM, Chery and BYD coming in with strong strategies for Malaysia, GoAuto needs to up its game or risk being left behind.
Why Does Careplus Need GoAuto Group?
As mentioned in the opening paragraph, the glove market in Malaysia saw an unprecedented boom during the pandemic. The company was trading at RM0.13 per share in December 2019 and then peaked at RM4.30 a share less than a year later. Now that the WHO has declared an end to ‘global health emergency’ status of COVID-19, Careplus stocks have sunk back to about RM0.30 per share. They’ve had a taste of serious dough and want more.
With the government providing full excise duty exemption on electric vehicles for a few more years, this is a field that Careplus probably sees a lot of growth potential in. Most of the other brands are already tied up with a partner, so GoAuto Group makes sense. Plus, they’re bringing in quite possibly the most affordable EV in the country, so they may just be able to find a lot of customers once the infrastructure for charging in Malaysia matures.
