Ann: Options exercise, page-19

I'm not sure why you would assume that all these options were free, there's always some sort of cost associated and if you do some homework on how options work in theory and reality, I'm sure you will discover that the rule rather then the exception is that the majority of options are usually converted at the last possible moment. The quality of the "story" is largely irrelevant.

Have a look at NVA as a very recent case study, NVAO just expired on August 31, 2020.
~430,000,000, million options on offer (0.0325c strike), many listed for ~2 years.
Great story yet with a month to go only ~19% had been converted.
~50% were converted in the last WEEK prior to expiry.
~99.92% NVAO ended up being converted.
(note all these figures are very rough, DYOR)

So I think you'll find at this point of the time, we are on a similar track with a great "story" and the added bonus of a larger concentration of IHLOB held by the TOP 20 and if you did some DD on that list of holders, you would be very confident of their intent to convert.

As a side note for those newer to options, have a look at the price action on NVA for the last month and week prior to NVAO expiration, it was heavily sedated then as soon as the options expired (and shareholders were given a taste of the positive news flow to come)

------------>> BOOM