Fair point on NZ comps which is hard to explain. On the shorting...

Fair point on NZ comps which is hard to explain. On the shorting side, 5% of shares of the free float are currently shorted (excluding Muplhas 24% share) so while not very high its reasonable.

On the debt side, the increase in facility size of $77.5m was just an existing bilateral facility being rolled into the syndicated facility, not normally a good sign. And as their annual report shows, total bank facilities available actually decreased from $781.6m in 2017 to $765.2m in 2018.  Also their average interest rate n their debt rose from 3.4% in 2017 to 4.3% in 2018 which seems a pretty big jump.  As to the banks extending their maturity dates by a further year, that is normal practice even for companies in distress, refer RFG and SGH for examples, it just kicks the can down the road and allows more time for the company to sort out its problems. I'm not saying Aveo is in distress, far from it, but the banks would be getting nervous. As an ex corporate banker, I can tell you that Aveo's current debt levels would be raising red flags in the banks credit departments.