aibioBenitec Biopharma says two quarterly financial reports should not be relied on, plans restatement
Tickers BNTC
Benitec's Audit Committee found share-based compensation expense was understated in the quarters ended December 31, 2024 and March 31, 2025. The company expects to file its 2025 annual report on time.
Key facts
- Company
- Benitec Biopharma Inc. (NASDAQ: BNTC)
- News type
- Distress
- Primary source
- Benitec Biopharma Inc. Form 8-K filed September 12, 2025 (SEC EDGAR)
Benitec Biopharma Inc. (Nasdaq: BNTC) says two of its quarterly financial reports should no longer be relied on and that it will restate them. The company disclosed the finding in a Form 8-K dated September 12, 2025, under Item 4.02, which covers non-reliance on previously issued financial statements. The company's Audit Committee reached the conclusion on September 10, 2025, after discussion with management and its independent accountants.
What was wrong
The two periods are the quarter and six months ended December 31, 2024, reported in a 10-Q filed February 14, 2025, and the quarter and nine months ended March 31, 2025, reported in a 10-Q filed May 14, 2025. The company says it had not appropriately recorded certain non-cash share-based compensation expense.
The cause, as the 8-K describes it, was a migration of equity award data to a new information system in November 2023. The system was "incorrectly configured," which understated share-based compensation expense. That in turn understated additional paid-in capital, accumulated deficit, net loss and loss per share. The company says the effect on periods before the quarter ended December 31, 2024, was immaterial, but that the cumulative effect was material for the two quarterly periods now being restated.
The 8-K gives no dollar amount for the understatement, and it does not say whether the company has identified a material weakness in its internal controls. The Audit Committee and management discussed the matters with Baker Tilly US, LLP, the company's independent registered public accounting firm.
The fix and the timetable
The company says it is preparing restatements of the two periods and will include them in its annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025. It expects to file the 2025 Form 10-K on a timely basis, on or before the deadline. The errors are non-cash, the company says.
Dr. Jerel A. Banks, chief executive officer, signed the 8-K.
The company and its cash
The company's annual report for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024 describes Benitec as a Hayward, California company developing genetic medicines on its DNA-directed RNA interference platform, called ddRNAi. Its lead program is BB-301, an AAV-based gene therapy for oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy, OPMD. The report says the company has Orphan Drug Designation for BB-301 in the United States and the European Union.
The report gives a cash balance of $50.9 million at June 30, 2024. The company reported net losses of $21.8 million for fiscal 2024 and $19.6 million for fiscal 2023, and used $19.4 million and $18.0 million in operations in those years. Financing activities brought in $68.0 million in fiscal 2024, mainly from the issuance of common shares. The company has no products approved for sale, and the report says it will require additional financing to progress its product candidates. The report says the company estimates its cash will be sufficient to fund operations for at least the next twelve months after the filing.
The report also lists the company's cash as earmarked for BB-301, including a natural history lead-in study and a Phase 1b/2a treatment study in OPMD-derived dysphagia.
The cover gives a non-affiliate market value of $8,373,562, based on a Nasdaq closing price of $3.23 on December 31, 2023.
Why it matters now
The problem is limited to share-based compensation, which the company calls non-cash. The 8-K does not say how large the restated net loss will be, and it gives no revised per-share numbers. It describes the errors as understatements of net loss.
Because the errors are non-cash, they affect reported expense and losses, not the cash the company holds. Still, investors who used the two quarterly reports were working from losses that the company now says were too small, and the error ran through a system the company had used since November 2023.
What comes next
The next step is the 2025 annual report, which the company expects to file on time with the restated quarterly figures included. The 8-K does not give a date for that filing or the amounts of the restatements, and the restated amounts will be known only when that report is filed.