DirectAnywhere,
Yes, I've been thinking pretty much the same thing over the last week, wrt the hedge funds playing the game into the last fortnight. And you may well be right - maybe somewhere along the line someone DID f#$k up.
But I'm not so sure this morning.
Maybe the funds really do want to hold onto the stock for more than another two weeks. It depends on what price they bought at, afterall. If they bought at 5.38 (and someone was buying at 5.38 last week), then selling to APA in two weeks for 5.45 is an ok profit. But vs longer term profit potential? Maybe the hedge funds all want to be part of the 30% minority alongside APA - to share in 30% of the capital (~$4.0 Bil) that APA plans to suck out of the balance sheet? But with retail 7% and UBS/BEM 11%, there's only scope for the hedgies to make up 12%. If they're sitting at 36% then some will have to miss out on the great train robbery (capital extraction) for the train robbery to proceed!
So the hedgies may well be thinking stay in the stock for the next 12 months.
Mate - who REALLY knows? This thing changes by the minute and none of us truly knows the details.
It's fascinating story of corporate intrigue, putting aside for a moment it's my livelihood they're kicking around like a friggin footy.