Pic: d3sign / Moment via Getty Images
Escrow Watch: Who’s unleashing stock into the ASX this fortnight?
Escrow Watch
share
Want to know when shares are coming out of escrow? We’ve been keeping tabs, so you don’t have to.
Every two weeks, Stockhead takes a look at the small cap companies that are releasing shares that have been locked away in escrow.
Escrow refers to shares that are held by early investors or directions restrained from selling for a year or two. The release of escrowed shares can have a big impact on stock price, because a sudden influx of stock onto the market can depress the shares you own.
This coming fortnight there are 20 small caps about to drop their loads on the ASX — some 283m shares.
The biggest whack of shares coming out is from Alcidion (ASX:ALC), which is unleashing 160m shares on the market.
The shares are part of the price paid to shareholders of MKM Health and Patientrack Holdings when Alcidion bought them in July 2018.
They’re keeping it in the family: “Over 90 per cent of the shares to be released from escrow are held by Alcidion managers and staff,” Alicidion said.
- Subscribe to our daily newsletter
- Join our small cap Facebook group
- Follow us on Facebook or Twitter
Next in line is Atomos (ASX:AMS), the market’s favourite camera software and add-on maker.
They are releasing 97m shares onto the market from voluntary escrow. That’s a whopping 34.3 per cent of the issued stock of the company about to be allowed to be traded.
But, these shares are held by major shareholders which entered into a voluntary escrow arrangement for a period after the IPO, so there is a chance they still won’t want to sell given their holdings are currently up 178 per cent since the listing.
Droneshield (ASX:DRO) went the other way, as founder John Franklin put 14m of shares *back* into a one-year escrow, as well as 2.2m Class B and Class C performance shares.
He did the same thing a year ago. Putting stock into voluntary escrow — as opposed to just saying you’re not going to sell — is the ultimate sign that a director really isn’t going to sell.
Imagion Biosystem’s (ASX:IBX) two year post-IPO escrow period is up and they’re releasing 78m shares onto the market.
That’s 24 per cent of the shares that have been issued by the company.
| ASX code | Company | Date released | Escrowed shares |
|---|---|---|---|
| IDX | Integral Diagnostics | July 2 | 18,834 |
| MOH | Moho Resources | July 2 | 133,334 |
| GSN | Great Southern Mining | June 30 | 500,000 |
| MMM | Marley Spoon | June 28 | 1,249,000 |
| EOF | Ecofibre | July 1 | 414,411 |
| ACL | Alcidion | July 3 | 160,354,152 |
| CGL | Citadel Group | June 30 | 6478 |
| ELO | Elmo | June 29 | 41,648,834 |
| ELO | Elmo | July 1 | 396,557 |
| VEO | Viva Energy | June 30 | 6,344,637 |
| AMS | Atomos | June 28 | 96,764,138 |
| BDC | Bardoc Gold | July 1 | 1,000,000 |
| SMX | Security Matters | June 27 | 5,644,173 |
| AIG | African Gold | June 30 | 775,000 |
| IGL | IVE Group | June 30 | 75,502 |
| NXS | Next Science | June 26 | 710,987 |
| YRL | Yandal Resources | June 25 | 1,479,166 |
| ESR | Estrella Resources | June 27 | 42,600,000 |
| UCW | UCW | July 3 | 5,500,000 |
| IBX | Imagion Biosystems | June 22 | 78,099,476 |
