Here’s our fortnightly list of ASX small caps with big parcels of shares coming out of “escrow”.

Escrow typically refers to shares that are held by early investors or directors who are restricted from selling for a period of one to two years.

The release of shares from escrow can have a big impact on a company’s share price. Each month ASX notices signal millions of securities due for release.

As spring kicks into gear we’ve counted more than 316 million shares from ASX small caps that are soon due out of escrow.

Gold miner Red 5 (ASX:RED) has the highest whack of shares being released — with 220 million due out on October 2 — some 18 per cent of the company’s total.

In a statement to the ASX, Red 5 said the shares were originally issued as partial consideration for its purchase of the Darlot gold mine from a wholly-owned subsidiary of Gold Fields and the King of the Hills gold project from Saracen Mineral Holdings.

Bowen Coking Coal (ASX:BCB) is releasing 36.9 million shares in two tranches. The first is the smaller of the two, 17.4 m (3pc), on 28 September, while 54.3m, 11pc, will be released on October 2.

Brand protection company YPB Group (ASX:YPB) has 544,928 shares coming out of escrow on 3 October.

They were originally issued to employees Richard Raju (400,000) and Juha Pelkonen (144,928) when they were hired as part of their performance contracts.

Over at data storage company Weebit Nano (ASX:WBT), a group of founding shareholders have agreed to put 251 million of their shares into voluntary escrow. They will be released in March next year.

That follows 576 million shares belonging to the same group that were released from escrow on August 3.

“The voluntary escrow period has been put in place by this group of founding shareholders given their continued support of Weebit Nano as the company progresses its productisation and commercialisation plans,” a statement to the ASX read.

“Weebit Nano’s Chairman, David Perlmutter, has voluntarily agreed to the further escrow period on all 29,858,321 shares he directly or indirectly owns.”

Here’s a list of ASX stocks that have signalled escrow releases before the end of this month:

Scroll or swipe to full reveal table. Click headings to sort

Asx code Company Date released Escrowed shares % of all shares
BCB Bowen Coking Coal 28-Sep 17.4m 3%
BCB Bowen Coking Coal 2-Oct 54.3m 11%
CXL Calix 30-Sep 6.7m 5%
NWC New World Cobalt 30-Sep 907k 0.2%
RED Red 5 2-Oct 220m 18%
BGT Bio-Gene Technology 28-Sep 2.7m 2%
MVF Monash IVF 5-Oct 101k 0.04%
YPB YPB Group 3-Oct 545k 0.1%
AQC Australian Pacific Coal 5-Oct 135k 0.3%
AOU Auroch Minerals 9-Oct 2.8m 3%
AOW American Patriot 5-Oct 1.5m 0.3%
PBP Probiotec 4-Oct 2m 3%
PVL Powerhouse Ventures 12-Oct 1.1m 4%
SNS Sensen Networks 13-Oct 5.6m 1%
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