Escrow Watch: Here’s who’s releasing shares in the next fortnight

Escrow Watch Nick Sundich
escrowed shares asx

A red macaw is released into the Ibera National Park in Argentina as part of a project to reintroduce native species - it has been extinct in the province for a century (Pic: Getty)

There are seven ASX companies releasing escrowed shares in the next fortnight.

ASX shares in escrow are “locked away” so owners can’t sell them – until they’re released. Such shares are typically called “restricted securities” by the ASX.

Escrowing shares is a common move for ASX-listed companies raising money, particularly when they’re seeking to IPO. It’s geared to show investors’ the directors’ confidence in the company and remove concerns they’re only listing or raising capital to “cash out”.

While there’s no guarantee the holders of those shares will sell, the mere fact they will have the power to do so, after lacking it for a period of time, can be unsettling to other shareholders.

Click here for a more detailed description of how escrow works…

Code Company Date of Release Shares % of company
AT1 Atomo Diagnostics 16 April 49,106,320 12.04%
WCN White Cliff Minerals 7 April 30,000,000 6.09%
BIN BINGO Industries 9 April 18,538,984 2.75%
MOE Moelis 10 April 11,666,667 7.70%
TNT Tessrent 9 April 20,000,000 2.00%
CWX Carawine Resources 14 April 500,000 0.05%
STK Strickland Metals 24 April 20,000,000 4.75%
WordPress Table

 

Who on the ASX is releasing escrowed shares soon?

Two ASX companies are releasing parcels of escrowed shares today. One is cybersecurity company Tesserent (ASX:TNT) which is releasing 20 million shares.

The other is Bingo Industries (ASX:BIN) which is releasing 18.5 million shares which belong to Ian Malouf, the founder of Dial A Dump which Bingo acquired back in August 2018.

He was issued Bingo shares (equating to 12 per cent of the company) when the deal was closed – which took until March 2019 after an ACCC investigation. The escrowed ASX shares have been released in four separate but equal tranches and this is the last parcel to be released.

Moving to next week and one ASX company releasing escrowed shares is investment bank Moelis (ASX:MOE) which is releasing nearly 11.7 million shares on the fourth anniversary of its ASX IPO.

The ASX’s first IPO after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic is releasing shares too. Atomo Diagnostics (ASX:AT1), the rapid HIV and COVID-19 test kit maker, is releasing 49 million shares – worth just over 12 per cent of the company.

Carawine Resources (ASX:CWX) is releasing a small parcel of 500,000 in escrowed shares on Wednesday.

Its shares took off earlier this year with gold hits at its Tropicana North project in WA although they have declined since then.

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