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Escrow Watch
Escrow Watch is Stockhead’s monthly recap of the ASX companies that are releasing shares currently in escrow (also known as restricted securities) over the coming weeks.
ASX shares in escrow are “locked away” and not listed on the bourse so owners can’t sell them – until they’re released.
This is intended to depict to would-be investors when raising capital that the management and previous investors are still backing the venture and aren’t raising capital just so they can “sell out”.
While there’s no guarantee holders of escrowed shares will sell at that point, the mere fact that they will be able to is worth knowing – particularly if shares have substantially moved one way or the other.
Click here for a more detailed description of the ASX rules surrounding escrow arrangements. As we head into a new year there are quite a few ASX companies due to release shares.
The Aussie BNPL play will release 186,360 ordinary shares from voluntary escrow today and a further 249,125 ordinary shares on April 4.
Shaw and Partners has retained its Buy rating on ZIP with a price target of $2.02 vs current price of 52 cents/share.
In the first half, Zip took actions to improve its balance sheet with $110 million of liabilities retired, and an upsized $300m debt issuance.
The company also wound down its non-core businesses during the half, discontinuing products in Singapore, UK, and Mexico – with closure of the Middle East well on track.
Gold explorer R8R will release 135,000 fully paid ordinary shares today and 1,900,000 partly paid shares. The company’s Kookynie Project is located in the Kookynie district of WA, ~150km north of Kalgoorlie and 55km south of Leonora.
R8R said it intends to investigate its underexplored tenements located in the heart of this district. The company listed on the ASX on July 8, 2022 after a $5.5 million IPO at 20 cents/share.
The company still has 5,846,250 fully paid ordinary shares, 7,600,000 partly paid shares and 3,000,000 class A,B,C and D performance rights due for release on July 8, 2024.
K2F will release 11,842,176 ordinary shares from voluntary escrow. The shares were the consideration shares and conversion of tranche 1 performance shares issued in relation to the Decipher acquisition, announced in February 2021.
K2F provides resource governance solutions for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) compliance, disclosure and technical assurance, and has contracts with Tier-1 and Tier-2 mining clients like Rio Tinto and FMG, operating in 54 countries.
The global provider of travel management solutions to the corporate market will release 3,571,429 fully paid ordinary shares held by Helloworld Group from voluntary escrow.
The shares were issued as part consideration for the acquisition of the Helloworld Travel (ASX:HLO) corporate and entertainment travel business in Australia and New Zealand.
The shares were subject to voluntary escrow for a period of 12 months from completion of the acquisition.
The gold-copper explorer will release 5 million ordinary shares from voluntary escrow.
The shares were in connection with the acquisition of the mine lease agreement over one of its flagship projects, the Humboldt Range Gold-Silver Project in Nevada, USA, announced in 2021.
PXX’s other flagship project is the Alaska Range copper-gold project in south-central Alaska.
The company has seen its share price plunge recently after revealing extensive low-grade gold mineralisation at Star Canyon, which is one of the claims that makes up its Humboldt Range project.
The Singaporean-Australian de-centralised water and waste water treatment business will release 3,196,773 fully paid ordinary shares from voluntary escrow.
The share were issued as part of the acquisition of the Capic business announced in March 2021.
The company saw record cash receipts of $6.7m in the quarter, a 14% increase on the pcp and the 15th consecutive quarter of cash receipts growth vs the pcp.
DEM generated ~$19.5 million in recurring cash receipts in CY22, reflective of 41% vs the pcp in CY 2021 ($13.8m in recurring cash receipts recorded in CY 2021) which it said speaks to the quality and predictability of its recurring revenue base.
The digital-place-based and location intelligence media company will release 1,910,800 fully paid ordinary shares.
The company confirms that the no further securities are subject to voluntary escrow.
The data and voice services company will release 1,482,856 fully paid ordinary shares from voluntary escrow.
The shares formed part consideration for the acquisition of Luminet and Luminet Fibre in April 2022.
PSI will release 3,870,250 fully paid ordinary shares from voluntary escrow.
The shares subject to the voluntary escrow were issued as part consideration in the acquisition of the business assets of Abaco Insurance Brokers (UK) and Trust Insurance Services (UK).
PSI recently announced it hasd finalised the acquisition of Ensurance UK, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of Ensurance (ASX:ENA).
DGL will release 363,924 quoted fully paid ordinary shares from voluntary escrow.
The shares were issued to vendors as part consideration for the acquisition of RLA Polymers and subject to a voluntary escrow period of 12 months.
DGL is a diversified industrial group, specialising in the manufacture, transport, storage of chemicals and processing of hazardous waste.
The newest silica sand player announced 7 million fully paid ordinary shares will be released from voluntary escrow and tradable on April 2.
These shares relate to the 2022 acquisition of the Carrara Range Battery Metal Project as per ASX release of 4 February 2022.
RML recently pegged the new George project in South Australia, which includes the Etadunna silica sands prospect.
Etadunna has been defined over 1km2 by historical drilling, which returned a top near-surface intersection of 34m grading 99.87% SiO2 that is open at depth.
FFF will release 1,388,889 fully paid ordinary shares from voluntary escrow.
The shares were part of the company’s acquisition of Blue Dinosaur, which completed on October 1, 2021, with 4,166,167 shares issued to Blue Dinosaur as part consideration for the purchase.
FFF said the remaining balance of 1,388,889 fully paid ordinary shares are due to be released on October 1, 2023.
The Firefly Resources (ASX:FFR) spinout and battery minerals explorer will release 12 million ordinary fully paid shares from escrow.
FFR made its ASX debut in April 2022 with a portfolio of lithium, rubidium, nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese and gold projects in WA and Queensland.
FTL shareholders include miner Gascoyne Resources (ASX:GCY) and Chinese battery metals investor Jayson, which is affiliated with the world’s largest lithium battery cell manufacturer CATL.
FTL said it will apply to ASX for quotation of the fully paid ordinary shares when released.
Diversified funds management group advises that 307,393 ordinary shares subject to voluntary escrow arrangements under the Pengana NED Equity Plan will be released.
PCG this week announced the retirement of Warwick Negus from the board with current non-executive director David Groves set to become an independent non-executive chairman effective April 1, 2023.
OSM will release 1.7 million fully paid ordinary shares on April 4 and a further 900,000 on April 5.
OSM is an early-stage mineral exploration and development company focused on gold and base metals discoveries within projects in South Australia and Victoria.
The shares have been classified by ASX as restricted securities and the company said they don’t change the issued capital of the company.
The gut health company will release 7,850,000 unlisted options exercisable at 18 cents/share on or before October 15, 2023.
MAP recently executed a deal with SYNLAB to distribute the company’s testing technology into Turkey and the Czech Republic.
The deal was signed with SYNLAB’s affiliate organisations in those two countries.
Diagnostics play Sonic Healthcare (ASX:SHL) has also recently acquired a stake in the company.
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