Call it the Singapore squeeze. The city state is becoming a tactical testing ground in executives’ fight back against short sellers. China Minzhong, the food producer savaged by Glaucus Research last week, yesterday announced a takeover offer from its biggest shareholder that recovered all the value lost in the attack, and more. Last year, Olam blasted Muddy Waters, Glaucus’s better-known California compatriot, with a capital-raising backed by the financial firepower of one of its biggest shareholders, Temasek. But Olam’s shares are now just 3 per cent above their post-attack low. Temporary tactics aside, the effects of short sellers can be hard to shift.

Muddy Waters’ attack caught Olam midway between being a cocoa-to-cashews trader and becoming a farm-to-factory gate supplier of the same products. In other words, at the point where its new investments still needed funding and its existing ones had not yet produced returns. This year, Olam has changed tack, nearly halving capital spending plans and pledging to sell stakes in various projects. After announcing the plan, its shares briefly climbed above their pre-attack level. Since then, Olam has fallen 15 per cent, a poorer performance than most of its peers.

Short attacks have many effects. After the early share price hit comes the strategy rethink. Olam’s new plans are less about its vocal critic than a generally more cautious investor mood. Then it is down to execution. Its investors had been happier waiting for proof of its new direction, but it can take some comfort in a 2 per cent jump yesterday in spite of a further blast from its nemesis.