We will know the results of the Insto/soph' raise? Hence your...

We will know the results of the Insto/soph' raise? Hence your suggestion of backroom collusion uninformed/weird? Its standard practice to only commence trading once that placement done. $10 mill to Insto's and soph's is the easy part. $217 million to retail is not and frankly illudes me as to why proportionally and absolutely so large given past raises.

There is nothing unusual in how the timeframe of this offer per your comment. The size of the retail to Insto' is unusual however. This company raised $57 million in its last raise from Insto's that was the majority of the capital raised in August 2023:

"As a result of strong demand from both domestic and overseas institutional investors Opthea accepted A$10.0 million of oversubscriptions in the Placement, which raised approximately A$20.0 million, increasing the capital raising to A$90m (US$57.6 million). The Institutional Entitlement Offer raised approximately A$53.7m. Eligible institutional shareholders took up approximately 47.0% of their entitlements with the shortfall placed to both new and existing institutional shareholders." Opthea, August 2023.

They got decent uptake and over-demand from Insto's last time. Why place such burden/onus on retail this time, when retail investors struggling more than ever?