Even on Umshebi's thesis in order to work for the shorters at the current price any raise would have to be highly dilutive and would involve SE/EWI/SF screwing over not just the minority shareholders such as ourselves, but the NZ shareholder groups. So I do not see that happening.
More concerning would be a takeover, or a take private, at a heavily discounted rate where the takeover vehicle is owned by a cohort owning 80% of the company already, or perhaps a winding up following a demand from slipform for payment, and a purchase of the subsidiaries from the liquidator.
Both are unlikely - I doubt anyone involved would muddy their reputation for a 15%-25% uplift in value.
Perhaps the shorter's vision is that 2022 shows there is not enough value in the project to repay the project finance, or that the new projects do not get banked for debt purposes.
Or perhaps they have already made their money and are trading their way to an exit. Until EWC starts to delivery, and people start buying the shares a very small number of trades will set the price. Perhaps they hope to trigger a bunch of margin calls and buy there. Anyway in absolute terms the exposure is not material.
EWC Price at posting:
8.1¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
