What does release shares from voluntary escrow mean?
Shares held in escrow are shares that form part of the issued capital of the company but the owner of such shares, upon their issuance, agrees not to sell the shares until the completion of a certain event or until the expiration of a period of time. They are then released from escrow.
Back on 11th September, 2017 BWX bought a Sydney based business called Nourished Life. They paid for the business, partly in Cash and partly through the issue of shares to the original owners of Nourished Life. This agreement also included performance based bonus share issues after each year for the ensuing four years. In each instance the shares were issued under a 12 month escrow agreement. This meant that the issued shares, in each case, could not be sold for 12 months after their issue. After the 12 month period, the release of the shares from escrow is allowed and an announcement to that affect is presented to the ASX as part of their rules. Issuing shares under escrow is a reasonably common practice. As best I can understand it, these shares would have been issued under escrow to comfort other shareholders about the transaction i.e. other shareholders can see that the seller of the business isn't about to re-sell the shares and run. They have an obligation to hold the share for twelve months. It's all a bit more legalistic than that but it's around about how it works.
BWX Price at posting:
63.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
