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 on release, 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 and the releasing of shares and some examples.

Here’s a list of ASX companies releasing restricted securities in June 2021…

Code Company Date of Release Shares % of company
SHG Singular Health Group Ltd 3-Jun 300,000 <1%
MYR Mayur Resources 10 June 4,037,427 1.8%
RMG RMG 5 June 54,100,000 6.2%
SZL Sezzle Inc 6 Jun & 23 Jun 126,550 and 226,001 <1%
PKS PKS Holdings 6-9 June 40,206,285 17.8%
CLU Cluey Ltd 9 Jun & 24 Jun 1,743,692 and 1,182,552 3.4%
DW8 Digital Wine Ventures 7 June 3,430,756 <1%
MAN Mandrake Resources 10 June 4,500,000 1.2%
CYP Cynata Therapeutics 10 June 224,501 <1%
PBH PointsBet Holdings Ltd 12-Jun 22,216,235 11.9%
SPN Sparc Technologies 14 June 991,159 1.7%
DC2 DC Two Ltd 22-Jun 2,000,000 5.9%
DDB Dynamic Drill & Blast Holdings 25-Jun 2,778,053 6.5%
M2R Miramar Resources Ltd 26-Jun 4,987,500 11.8%
MEG Megado Gold Ltd 26-Jun 2,250,000 5.5%
VUL Vulcan Energy Resources Ltd 30-Jun 1,250,000 1.2%
BEX Bikeexchange Ltd 1-Jul 26,103,482 19.0%
SKY Sky Metals Ltd 1-Jul 58,251,287 23.6%
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The biggest ASX company releasing restricted securities is PointsBet (ASX:PBH) which is a $2.4 billion company after growing from $2 per share to over $12 per share in two years.

On June 12, the second anniversary of the bookmaker’s listing, it is set to release over 22 million shares equating to just over 10 per cent of the company.

PointsBet is also releasing 349,232 options, set to expire a few weeks later on June 2021 at a fraction of the current share price – $1.07 per share.

Two other strong IPOs are data centre and cloud provider DC Two (ASX:DC2) which is releasing nearly 6 per cent of its shares, and mining services entity Dynamic Drill & Blast Holding (ASX:DDB) which is releasing just over 6 per cent of its shares.

These companies are up 50 per cent and 140 per cent since listing last year.

BikeExchange (ASX:BEX) has stagnated since listing earlier this year but is releasing 26 million shares – worth 19 per cent of its shares on issue – on July 1.

Briefly back to 2019 listings and medtech PKS (ASX:PKS) has more than doubled since listing.

This ASX company is releasing approximately 40 million restricted securities which were issued as part of an acquisition from last year – worth over 17 per cent of its shares on issue.

Lithium play Vulcan (ASX:VUL), which has gone from 16 cents to over $8 in 18 months, is set to release 1,250,000 shares on June 30.

But the ASX stock releasing the highest proportion of shares is NSW gold explorer Sky Metals (ASX:SKY) which is releasing over 58 million shares – 23.6 per cent of its shares on issue – on July 1.

This is the second anniversary of its reinstatement to quotation after its recapitalisation, name change from Planet Gas and shift from tin to gold.

While shares are off their peak of 40 cents in May 2020 they are still above the 4 cent per share price this deal was concluded at.