Ann: Becoming a substantial holder, page-71

I could be wrong here but this is what I speculate is happening.

A long term lender (LTH), with no dividend income from WBT, wants to earn a bit on the side , so it lends WBT shares to short sellers in return for cash or other listed shares lodged with the lender.

When they do that, the shares are transferred and registered to the short seller and/or its related parties. If the shares involved >=5% of issued capita, a Form called Form 603 or Notice of initial substantial holder is lodged. Just because the form is lodged, as the name on the form suggests, does not mean they are LTH. It’s just that the shares are now transferred and registered to them to commence short selling. One may be mistaken that they are the good guys with their name on the Form, but they are definitely not.Short seller then starts to short sell into the market expecting to make a profit by buying back cheaper shares (when the price drops). Life is made easy for short sellers for with WBT, there being no dividend and franking credit, or forseeable corporate action events needed to compensate the lender (LTH).

Meanwhile shareholders seeing the share price going down, plus those with margin calls, start to surrender and sell to the short sellers who then returns the borrowed shares to the lender, making a killing along the way.

From hereon if they continue to be in the share register with >=5%, expect changes to substantial shareholder forms to be lodged with increasing regularity.