Looking at the past disclosures, I also agree that DT and the team strike me as an ethical team too. But like
@dontaskme said, there is nothing unethical about planning the pipeline ahead of time and to try to time announcements in a way to minimize volatility. We know from the management that the contract with Operon is in its final stages and the announcement is imminent. We also know that they have secured funds (if taking into account European time) 5 working days ago. So it is a matter of arranging funds to be ready for transfer to Operon and arranging board meetings from both companies to approve the contract and, in case of ADO, the board approval of the announcement. "
In accordance with the Spanish regulations, qualified electronic signatures have the same validity as handwritten wet ink signatures, in all forms of contractual relationship. Consequently, there cannot be any cases in which only wet ink is accepted." So once all elements are aligned, there can be an exchange of signatures and this can be conducted electronically.
https://cms.law/en/int/expert-guides/cms-expert-guide-to-e-signatures-in-commercial-contracts/spainI think if the management cares about controlling SI's behavior, the best way to do it would have been selection of brokers that will be more likely to hold the shares mid to long term. If SIs want quick profit, they could short sell from the time they knew how much would be allocated to them or wait until the price is right to sell. They also know that the announcements are imminent so if quick profit is what they are after, what does it matter for them to wait few more days for when the price is right.
On the other hand, it matters to the company if the price falls too close to the SPP price, because it is then more attractive for the existing shareholders to buy on the market instead of freezing their money for a few weeks for the SPP. In this case, any shareholder that buys on the market pays their money to the short term profit takers and not to the company to allow for growth.
Some newcomers may be surprised by steep decline in the SP, but we had a steep rise in the SP on essentially no material $$ news despite such expectations prior to the product launch. So to me, the fact that it is holding where it is despite the highly discounted CR price, suggests that there is big appetite for ADO and some big players see value and potential in the company given a number of big buys lately. The company is closing in on the commercialization and these few weeks may be volatile, but I am more interested in the long term prospects of the company.
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