Ann: Investor Presentation, page-24

depends:

1% short interest = 18m shares. This is about 5% of the free float (at a guess). Most of the free float is held by "believers" that have been sorely disappointed but like boiled frogs remain hopeful. The trading volumes are low. All of which mean the "short covering" could take some time - a matter of a month or so, especially if the rights are exercised and held by believers and by new strategic investors. These shorters will be required to deliver physical shares to the lender. So 18m shares short should trigger buying of 8m shares, or possibly an increased short position if the shorters are able to borrow more shares to cover this requirement.

But there are a couple of banks on the register with reasonable stakes. These banks act as prime brokers to hedge funds. The typical arrangement is a "swap" where the hedge takes a financial position in the price change, and the prime broker hedges this in the physical market. The prime broker will typically hold enough shares to hedge the net position. The shorts offsetting the longs is not disclosed as a short as the prime broker is typical net long. The prime broker will either have to increase its exposure to the physical shares in order to cover the entitlement by the longs to the additional shares or it will increase the short position held. If it increases the short position, it will also increase the margin requirements.

Further, there are other providers who provide financial positions such as options, CFD's and spread bets - who also hedge the financial position using a net underlying physical position.

To conclude. I don't know. The current short position will take time to cover, and if not covered is likely to increase. The true short position may be substantially more than disclosed due to swaps, options, cfds, spreads and these short positions could also increase without disclosure.

Are we likely to see a short squeeze? Maybe. But if EWC hits its targets, then covering the short positions will accelerate the price appreciation to value.