There are significantly more short bets than known

Dusseldorf At the battery manufacturer Varta, hedge funds are betting much more heavily on falling share prices than previously known. This emerges from an analysis by the financial data provider S3 Partners, which is available to the Handelsblatt. Accordingly, more than 25 percent of the freely tradable Varta shares are shorted.

This means that there are almost four times as many short bets against Varta as previously known. The “Bundesanzeiger” currently shows only six short positions for Varta, totaling 6.73 percent. The positions are only published here when they reach the threshold of 0.5 percent of freely tradable shares.

Positions of 0.49 percent and smaller are therefore not recorded. However, there must be at least 38 of these in order to arrive at the value determined by S3. However, the calculation methods could differ, explains the financial regulator Bafin on request.