Ann: Becoming a substantial holder , page-13

I can only speculate, but for UBS to lend out their stock for this purpose puts them on the other side of the trade, ie, they wouldn't be lending much of it or any if they believed it would fall through.

It may be speculators or arbitrage traders, getting in the queue to sell short at 29.5 and then be in the queue to buy back at 29, thereby making half a cent or about 1.5% per trade. Or simply some traders betting on the bid failing, this figure of around 10 million shares is only around half a percent of shares on issue, so not significant and to be expected IMO in this situation.

If there is a large spike in short sales, that would be a concern. The number of FMS shares sold short has remained around 20 mil for over a year from memory. Might pay to keep track of the daily sales.