More than half a billion escrowed shares from 18 ASX small caps will hit the market in coming weeks.

Or 558 million to be exact. By our count.

Escrow is a period in which shareholders are stopped from trading the stock they own.

Escrowed securities tend to belong to company directors, who are often restricted from selling stock for two years after listing, or major shareholders who can escrow stock for a specified period.

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 for release.

Financial planner Yellow Brick Road (ASX:YBR), which last week received a low-ball bid from corporate raider Mercantile Investments, has 4.5 million shares, 1.6 per cent of its total issued shares, coming out of escrow on September 7. Its share price has fallen 40 per cent in the last six months.

Challenged health food company Murray River Organics (ASX:MRG) could face further share price pressure with 11 million shares, 8.6 per cent of its total, coming out of escrow on September 5. The company has been in trading suspension since May, however.

Mineral explorer AustSino (ASX:ANS) has the highest amount of escrowed shares hitting the market, with 172 million to be released on September 5 — but it only makes a small 3.4 per cent of the company’s five billion shares.

QANTM Intellectual Property (ASX:QIP), which is the holding company of three intellectual property companies, is releasing 67.7 million shares today (31 August) — which is a whopping 51 per cent of the company’s total issued shares.

Big River (ASX:BRI), Titanium GrowthOps (ASX:TGO) and Cirralto (ASX:CRO) also have significant percentages of shares coming out of escrow: 34 per cent, 23 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.

Luxury car retailer Autosports Group (ASX:ASG) has signalled that it will release 94.3 million shares on September 12 — which is 47 per cent of the company’s total shares.

It also noted a second tranche of 40 million shares is due to be released after the company reports its 2019 financial results next year.

Kingwest Resources (ASX:KWR), which only listed a week ago, is releasing 636,600 shares from escrow, which makes up 1.3 per cent  of its issued shares.

Here’s a list of the ASX businesses that have signalled escrow releases over the next three weeks:

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

ASX code Company Date released Escrowed shares % of all shares
BRI Big River 12-Sep 18m 34%
YPB YPB Group 13-Sep 1m 0.1%
ASG Autosports Group 12-Sep 94.3m 47%
3PL 3P Learning 15-Sep 100k 0.07%
DEM De.mem 18-Sep 1.8m 1.7%
KWR Kingwest Resources 31-Aug 636k 1.3%
YBR Yellow Brick Road 7-Sep 4.5m 1.6%
ANS AustSino 5-Sep 172m 3.4%
NES Nelson Resources 5-Sep 1.4m 3%
TGO Titanium GrowthOps 5-Sep 24.9m 23%
CRO Cirralto 7-Sep 69.3m 18%
MRG Murray River Organics 5-Sep 11m 8.6%
5GN 5G Networks 4-Sep 7.8m 15%
IAM Intiger Group 1-Sep 37.5m 2.8%
QIP QANTM Intellectual Property 31-Aug 67.7m 51%
SW1 Swift Networks 31-Aug 2.7m 2.2%
MGP Managed Accounts Holdings 31-Aug 40.9m 14%
RHY Rhythm Biosciences 3-Sep 2.5m 2.5%
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