I think person B owned 50 shares in the example... they are probably a little annoyed they are stuck with a small holding, but since the underlying company is still in business, just leaves it in a draw.
The shorter is probably annoyed at not being able to easily close out an illiquid position, especially after the split. If the example is about ISX, the original gross short position was of the order of 15m shares or 1.5m of isxfeu, which is really not that much. The shorter is probably also annoyed because they can't get their collateral back from the lender and are now missing out on some interest (now that cash rates are nonzero). There were still around 14m gross short at the demerger, according to the asic data. Maybe some of the FEU line has been covered off market since then, though i doubt it. Either way, less than 1.4% of SOI as gross short isn't really material.
SP1 Price at posting:
$1.07 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
