A co. release on Friday shows that about 32m options have been...

A co. release on Friday shows that about 32m options have been exercised since the last NTA update on 31 July, taking the no. of outstanding shares to 274m, and leaving 91mn options still un-exercised.

If you take the reported NTA per unit of $1.19 at 31 July then apply a (possibly excessive*) 5% discount to reflect the market decline over the past six weeks or so, NTA declines to $1.12. Adjusting further for the 32.6mn options exercised since 31 July brings the figure marginally lower. If you then assume 100% exercise of 91.9mn options still on issue at 8 Sep (which, as others here have opined, seems unlikely), the NTA per share, on my calculations, would come down to $1.11. This is not something I want to see happen, but if the market continues to discount the stock after the option expiry date comes and goes, the unit price could indeed fall below $1.10.

*I assume above that NTA has tracked the market (thus fallen since the last update), but ultimately have no idea where it is given the various styles of managers associated with the fund. There should be an NTA update any day now as the previous one was issued on 13 Aug.