KUALA LUMPUR (July 23): Careplus Group Bhd surged as much as 22% today, hitting an all-time high of RM2.30, after it announced the purchase of a large stake in a property developer to convert the latter’s hotels and shoplots to workers' hostels.

At 11.50am, the glove maker had pared its gains to settle at RM2.19, 30 sen or 15.87% higher than its opening price, making it the third top gainer on Bursa Malaysia.

At this price, the glove maker had a market capitalisation of RM1.21 billion. Year to date, the counter was up some 1,269% from 16 sen.

The company attracted significant investor interest today, with 130.32 million shares traded — over three times its 200-day average trading volume of 39.07 million.

In a filing with the Bursa yesterday, Careplus announced the purchase of a 90% stake in property developer Centro Heights Sdn Bhd for RM3.42 million, which will see the group consolidating its workers’ hostels into a central location — by converting the property developer’s hotel property and shoplots in Seremban to hostels.

Careplus said this acquisition is meant to enable efficient management and ease of administrative purposes. The purchase will be funded via internally-generated funds.

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Careplus buys property development firm, converts its hotels and shoplots to workers' hostel