Siwel, as you probably know, but find convenient to your objective to disregard, a company requires a special resolution to increase its authorised share capital and the directors require consent by way of company resolution to disregard the pre-emption rights of shareholders and place shares with selected investors.
It remains to be seen whether the placing price will be lower than or greater than the current price.
If it takes until mid-Feb for the potential of this company to be reflected in its SP, that will save me a considerable amount of CGT and it will save me the agony of making the decision of sell or hold.
I have read somewhere that some of the spread bets were arranged to continue u ntil at least next March. If so, and unless closed earlier, there is another large chunk of shares removed until then.