The team behind Cettire's escalating battle with short sellers
One of the most shorted stocks on the ASX, Cettire has tapped a lineup of top-tier advisors as it fights back.
Cettire, once a market darling on the ASX, has become the target of short sellers — but the luxury e-commerce platform is mounting an aggressive defence, enlisting a high-powered team of legal, advisory and communications firms to push back.
With short sellers holding nearly 11% of the company going into Cettire’s full-year earnings last Thursday, the ASX-listed company revealed that it had spent $912,000 on “short campaign costs” over the last four months of FY24 to combat them.
“When you see reported shorts build up from 2% to 10%, that’s obviously cause for alarm, and at that point, you need a coordinated short defence strategy. You are fighting to protect your company,” an experienced corporate adviser, who did not wish to be named, told Capital Brief.
In March, reporting in the Financial Review questioned whether Cettire was appropriately paying duties on its goods. Subsequent concerns have been raised over the company’s tax arrangements in the US, the sustainability of its business model and the uncertainty surrounding its supply chain.
