Gold miner faces squeeze - Telegraph The company, in which Mr Hambro owns a 4.62pc stake, has seen a significant increase in the number of hedge and other funds selling down the shares. The increase has followed a significant fall in the value of the company, down 75pc in the past six months. According to data from Markit, in the past month, the incidence of shorting has increased by 16.77pc, with 14.56pc of its shares now being shorted. The data show that the company is now the most shorted in the FTSE All-Share index, ahead of retailers WH Smith and Home Retail Group in second and third place. The concern among investors is that the lower price of gold could cause problems as it is carrying $1.15bn (£740m) of debt. At the start of July, analysts at Nomura slashed their target price for the company from 125p to 55p, pushing the shares to a then all-time low of 78.75p, saying that under a hypothetical break-up scenario, the shares could be valued at zero. Since then the shares have rallied slightly, closing up 3.5p at 85p on Friday night. The company used a production update in late July to reassure investors, saying debt would fall below $1bn by the end of the year and that it was on track to meet production targets this year and would keep a lid on costs. Nick Hatch, an analyst at Westhouse, argued the shorting has been overdone. He said that "a greater second-half production profile, lower unit cash costs and implementation of the company's debt and cost reduction programme" should aid sentiment, setting a 130p-a-share target price.