3D Printing Firm Divergent Caught Up in Viceroy Research’s Short Report on Hexagon
As global equity markets become more and more overvalued by historical standards, more room is constantly opened up for activist short seller groups looking to feast on the fat of bloated corporate entities. The most well-known example of this in the past year was Hindenburg Research’s short sale report on Indian conglomerate Adani Group, whose flagship company, Adani Enterprises Ltd, lost as much as 60 percent of its market cap as a result of the report.
The latest in this genre is a report from Viceroy Research on Swedish software firm, Hexagon AB, which has a ~$25 billion market cap and reportedly does over $5 billion a year in revenue. Hexagon also made a $100 million investment into additive manufacturing (AM) firm Divergent Technologies at the end of 2022. Viceroy alleges that an investment vehicle called Greenbridge, founded by former Hexagon CEO and current Hexagon chairman Ola Rollén, was being used by the software giant to front run investments. Front running is when an individual or firm invests in a company with the knowledge that the company will, at a later date, receive a large, well-publicized investment from another entity.
In the case of Hexagon, the allegation is that Greenbridge invested in Divergent with advance knowledge that Hexagon would ultimately make the $100 million investment. According to Greenbridge, “only three out of thirteen” of Hexagon’s executive management team are direct shareholders in Greenbridge (which to me still seems significant), with Viceroy (fairly convincingly) arguing that “Greenbridge is substantially owned by Hexagon insiders.”Greenbridge, for its part, replied by stating that it didn’t invest in Divergent until four months after the Hexagon investment, in April, 2023, m and claimed that its own (Greenbridge’s) investment was “on an arm’s length basis”.
Viceroy then responded by saying that, essentially, while Greenbridge may not have front-run Hexagon’s investment, Viceroy’s larger concern with Hexagon is what the research firm considers to be an opaque style of financial reporting. Regardless of what happened, then, from Viceroy’s perspective, it should at least raise concerns to the average shareholder that Greenbridge didn’t disclose its stake in Divergent until the issue was raised.

The less charitable way that Viceroy puts it is, “Viceroy genuinely believed Greenbridge front-ran Hexagon’s Divergent Technologies investment. It seemed somewhat less idiotic than the alternative: Hexagon management have “double-dipped” in Divergent by taking greater personal stakes ahead of Hexagon shareholders.” That is, if the scenario took place as is now being claimed by Greenbridge, then Hexagon executives are still acting against the interests of shareholders by putting their personal stakes ahead of the company’s.

Having read the Viceroy report, it is hard not to be sympathetic to its claims. On the other hand, I’m not sure that anyone is going to care, except for whoever is in the money on the short side of Hexagon, and whoever has been waiting for the company’s share price to fall to “an attractive entry point”, as asset managers like to say.
I’m not even sure if it will affect Divergent negatively, because all it conveys to me is that something the company is doing is worth performing potentially questionable investment practices. Moreover, because most non-investors don’t really understand how options trading works, short seller reports rarely seem to do permanent damage. Adani Enterprises Ltd has rebounded something like 80 percent since its post-Hindenburg low.
Subscribe to Our Email Newsletter
Stay up-to-date on all the latest news from the 3D printing industry and receive information and offers from third party vendors.
Print Services
Upload your 3D Models and get them printed quickly and efficiently.
You May Also Like
MX3D Receives €7 Million in Series A Funding for WAAM Services
Dutch large-format wire arc additive manufacturing (WAAM) firm MX3D has gotten a €7 million ($7.8M) investment in its Series A round. The round is led by EDF Pulse Ventures, with...
3D Printing News Briefs, April 23, 2025: Awards, Scalmalloy, & More
We’re starting with double awards for AMIS in today’s 3D Printing News Briefs, as the company was recently honored on both sides of the Atlantic! Moving on, BLT Europe announced...
3D Printing News Briefs & Events Roundup: March 8, 2025
Starting this week, we’re shaking things up a little! We’ll be combining our 3D Printing News Briefs with a more curated weekly list of 3D printing webinars and events to...
Endgame for Currant 3D and Sugar Lab as the Pioneers of 3D Printed Sweet Treats
From powdered sugar to gravity-defying creations, the 3D printing of sweet treats was pushed further than ever by culinary brands Currant 3D and Sugar Lab. Co-founded by Kyle von Hasseln...