Related Party Transaction

6 Months Ended

Jul. 31, 2017

Related Party Transactions [Abstract]

Related Party Transaction

9. Related Party Transaction

On June 8, 2016, the Company issued 320,000 shares of 9.00% Series A Cumulative Preferred Stock (the “Preferred Stock”), par value $1.00 per share, pursuant to an underwriting agreement, dated June 2, 2016, by and between the Company and Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. The Co-Chief Executive Officer and Co-President of Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc is the Non-Executive Chairman of the Company’s board of directors. The underwriter received underwriting discounts and commissions totaling $440,000 in connection with this offering. In addition, the underwriter received a structuring fee equal to 0.50% of the gross proceeds from this offering, or $40,000.    The Non-Executive Chairman of the Company received no portion of these commissions, discounts and fees.

On October 7, 2016 the Company entered into an equity distribution agreement (the “Equity Distribution Agreement”) with Ladenburg Thalmann & Co. Inc. (the “Agent”), pursuant to which the Company may sell up to 500,000 shares of the Preferred Stock through the Agent through an at the market (“ATM”) offering program. Under the Equity Distribution Agreement, the Agent will be entitled to compensation of up to 2.0% of the gross proceeds from the sale of Preferred Stock under the ATM program. For the three and six months ended July 31, 2017, the Company issued 32,623 and 36,972 shares of Preferred Stock under the ATM offering program, respectively. Gross proceeds from these sales for the three and six months ended July 31, 2017 were approximately $762,000 and $789,000 respectively and the Agent received compensation of approximately$15,000 and $16,000, respectively. The Non-Executive Chairman of the Company received no portion of this compensation.