I cannot imagine this CR was not a preplanned action by WBT. It looks to me like they planned to do a CR way back in Jan or before, e.g. on Jan 25th when the low was around $5. It then started the CR negotiation process moving during Feb, doing the calculations and setting the targets one month ago, say Feb 22, when the SP was at $6.13. At that time a 10-15% discount would not have been unreasonable (do I remember that Meitav Dash was sort of around that discount, and many then considered that too large too). That was the time of the many presentations to the industry, the US roadshows, the retail briefings, the DJI rebalance, etc.
The problem was that everyone believed the message and piled in, driving up the share price substantially. It's a nice problem to have. But I suspect it was a bit of an embarrassment given that they knew what they were going to raise at. Naturally those that bought in then for the first time while the SP climbed to $8.69 felt like it was all swigging champagne, and were disturbed to see it go down again. Because they had not been onboard long enough to see the wider context they could not see any reason for the slides backward. But they really felt like their throats had been cut yesterday when the SP suddenly fell to $5.54!
But the problem in this is that it is all has all happened in a very short snapshot of the progress of the CV.
The article you post seems to make the wrong point out of all this. The SP did not tank, leaving WBT in a pickle. Investors did not consider the investment was a bad one because the company was in trouble. The SP fell on what seems likely to be leaked news of a CR. And it fell towards the level of the expected CR price. The problem was that the SP had risen as if there was no chance of the co doing a raise. In that I think Coby may have somewhat misled the market by indicating that they did not need the cash
immediately given what they were doing
at that particular time. But as others have pointed out here, he did say they would need more cash
eventually. It's just come sooner rather than later, and probably because doing it at this time is the best time for that movement. After a while I suspect the fall will make no negative difference to LTH.
I suspect that the recent interest in standalone RERAM chips without selectors could have been one factor that changed things, and needed additional cash invested. It could end up with a product soonish that was not anticipated previously.
Short term opportunities available shown here, and may benefit in being funded sooner rather than later.
But all of this is simply gut feeling on my part. This is not advice. I could be wrong, so don't blame me for your investment decisions.
GLTAH DYOR
(20min delay)