"Putting on my conspiracy hat... IMO The entitlement offer is...

"Putting on my conspiracy hat...
IMO The entitlement offer is for two purposes - so SI can buy in & shut up retail investors (and non-SHs e.g. @madamswer) who complains it’s always an institutional placement
Now that Mesoblast got $55m in the bank already, they don't really mind what additional $$$ they get from this token retail entitlement. If they get more money good, if not then it's less dilution"

Not sure about a conspiracy hat, but it certainly looks like a flawed logic hat.

The basis on which the raising is predicated is not, as your thinking implies, "$55m will do us just fine and anything more than that we get we will be happy to squirrel away in the hollow logs"

The ~$95m they sought to raise is not a number that was pulled from their collective derriere; it was to be allocated for specific purposes (they said as much in the announcement/presentation supporting this capital raising). So to the extent that they fall short of the capital target, means that some of the purpose(s) for which the new money was earmarked, will be unfunded.

But don't take my word for it; do the basic math yourself to project what the company's capital position will be going forward if the retail offer falls down, and you'll find that within 6 months' time they''ll be at the exact same point as they were at the start of the current quarter, namely that the drawn debt will be around US$40m more than the cash holdings.

Based on the precedent, what do you think short-sellers do early in the new year with that picture in mind? Any objective observer of the situation will expect that the short-selling cycle repeats.

So it is quite curious to be agnostic about the company potentially not succeeding in raising the amount of money it's own management and directors said was required.

It is well known this is a stock prone to shorting, which most shareholders detest.

Yet, that the circumstances that induce shorting (i.e., lack of funds) could re-appear in a mere few weeks' time because of a half-baked capital raising exercise, you are ambivalent about that.

Bizarre.
.