Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity
ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES.
The information required by Item 201 of Regulation S-K is contained in ‘‘ Item 1. Business .’’
On July 1, 2023, our Board made grants to our CEO and CFO, entitling them to receive an aggregate of 79,589 common shares which shall not be issued to the award recipients unless certain time or performance based vesting criteria, as applicable, are met, in which case the vesting will occur in three equal parts on the succeeding periods ending on July 1. The awards were made under the 2020 Equity Incentive plan in accordance with Rule 701 promulgated under the Securities Act.
On July 3, 2023, our Board made grants to our directors entitling them to receive an aggregate of 64,975 common shares which shall not be issued to the award recipients unless certain time or performance based vesting criteria, as applicable, are met, in which case the vesting will occur in three equal parts on the succeeding periods ending on December 31. The awards were made under the 2020 Equity Incentive plan in accordance with Rule 701 promulgated under the Securities Act.
On December 31, 2023, our Board made grants to our management and employees entitling them to receive an aggregate of 213,982 common shares which shall not be issued to the award recipients unless certain time or performance based vesting criteria, as applicable, are met, in which case the vesting will occur in three equal parts on the succeeding periods ending on December 31. The awards were made under the 2020 Equity Incentive plan in accordance with Rule 701 promulgated under the Securities Act.
On March 9, 2023, the Board of Directors authorized a new share repurchase program of up to 2,292,644 common shares, representing 10% of the outstanding common shares of Epsilon at that time, for an aggregate purchase price of not more than US $15.0 million. The program is pursuant to a normal course issuer bid and will be conducted in accordance with Rule 10b-18 under the Exchange Act. The program commenced on March 27, 2023 and will end on March 26, 2024.
The Company funded the purchases out of available cash and did not incur debt to fund the share repurchase program. The shares are accounted for as treasury shares until such a time as they are retired.
The following table provides information with respect to the common share purchases made by the Company during the three months ended December 31, 2023.
Total number of
Maximum number
shares purchased
of shares that
as part of
may yet be
Total number
Average price
publicly
purchased under
of shares
paid per
announced plans
the plans or
Period
purchased
share
or programs
programs
December 2023
70,874
$
5.06
Total
70,874
$
5.06
968,149
1,324,495
ITEM 6. [RESERVED.]