Ann: Opthea to Present at SVB Leerink Healthcare Conference, page-14

I'd have to look at the ESOP but normally cashless conversion of options is exercising the option and keep the difference between the strike price and the prevailing market price. So, if the company is doing this for them that would be something in the ESOP, never seen that before. Otherwise more likely, it was done through a third party eg broker, so effectively selling the number of shares on market to pay for the exercise of all the options. A fairly sneaky way of not saying SOLD ON MARKET.

The numbers match up when I go through that exercise, at least for MB. Not sure how many more chances the company wants to provide for the manipulators to do their thing but there you go. A zero risk play for the directors when they had the opportunity to show a vote of confidence and better tax outcome if they had exercised using their own money or even loan and held all shares from the converted options.