SEC Company Response from BNB PLUS CORP. (BNBX) (CIK 0000744452) (BNBX) — Jul 3, 2008
BNB PLUS CORP. (BNBX) (CIK 0000744452)
Date: July 3, 2008 · CIK: 0000744452 · Accession: 0001188112-08-002117
AI Filing Summary & Sentiment
File numbers found in text: 333-122848
Referenced dates: June 24, 2008
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CORRESP
1
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Fulbright
& Jaworski L.L.P.
A
Registered Limited Liability Partnership
666 Fifth
Avenue, 31st Floor
New York,
New York 10103-3198
www.fulbright.com
mkraines@fulbright.com
direct
dial: (212) 318-3261
telephone: (212)
318-3000
facsimile: (212)
318-3400
July 3,
2008
VIA
EDGAR AND FEDERAL EXPRESS
Mr.
Jeffrey P. Riedler
Assistant
Director
U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Division
of Corporation Finance
100 F
Street, N.E.
Mail Stop
3561
Washington,
D.C. 20549-3561
Re:
Applied
DNA Sciences, Inc.
Amendment
No. 10 to
Registration
Statement on Form SB-2 on Form S-1
File No. 333-122848
Dear Mr.
Riedler:
On behalf
of Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (the “Company”), in
response to the Staff’s comment letter dated June 24, 2008 (the “Comment Letter”) in
connection with Amendment No. 10 (“Amendment No. 10”) to
the Company’s above-referenced Registration Statement on Form SB-2 on Form S-1
(the “Registration
Statement”), we hereby submit proposed changes to Amendment No. 10 and
supplemental information for your review.
All
responses to the comments set forth in this letter are submitted on behalf of
the Company at its request. The following numbered paragraphs repeat
the comments in the Comment Letter for your convenience, followed by the
Company’s responses to those comments. We intend to file Amendment
No. 11 to the Registration Statement when the Company’s responses to the Comment
Letter have been approved. We hope this approach is
satisfactory.
FORM S-l
Management’s Discussion and
Analysis of Financial Condition and Plan of Operations
Critical Accounting
Policies, page 14
Equity Issued with
Registration Rights
Mr.
Jeffrey P. Riedler
U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Division
of Corporation Finance
July 3,
2008
Page
2
1.
Please
refer to prior comment one. We acknowledge your proposed new
disclosure. Please expand your disclosure to discuss the
specific methods and key assumptions used to estimate this obligation,
particularly the factors that caused you to increase this obligation by
$7,725,585 in 2007. Provide us a calculation of how you derived
the increase in the liability. Also, as previously requested,
include all disclosure required by paragraph 12 of EITF 00-19-2, such as
the events or circumstances that would require you to transfer
consideration under this arrangement.
Response: The Company
proposes to revise the disclosure on pages 14 and 15 of Amendment No. 10
as set forth on Exhibit
A. Attached as Exhibit
B hereto is a calculation of the $7,725,585 liability for
liquidated damages as of September 30, 2007.
Notes to Consolidated
Financial Statements
Note D-Private
Placement of Convertible Notes
Revaluation of Warrant
Liability, page F-21
2.
Please
refer to prior comment six. We do not understand how paragraph
Example 7 of A14 of FSP EITF 00-19-2 supports your reclassification of the
cumulative fair value of the warrants and cumulative reported
gains. The accrual of your liquidating damage appears to
indicate that Example 7 is not applicable to you. Please
provide an expanded explanation of your basis for this accounting
treatment. In particular, tell us the specific factors that you
considered in concluding that payments related to registration rights for
these warrants were not probable and that apart from the registration
rights arrangement, these warrants would otherwise have been classified as
equity instruments in accordance with other applicable GAAP for all
periods.
Response: In
connection with the accounting and disclosure of the warrant liability,
the Company should have referred to Example 8 , paragraph A15 of FSP EITF
00-19-2 Accounting for
Registration Payment Arrangements ("FSP 00-19-2"), instead of
Example 7.
As
previously disclosed, the Company accounted for the warrants issued in
connection with the promissory notes as a liability in accordance with
EITF 00-19, Accounting
For Derivative Financial Instruments Indexed to and Potentially Settled in
a Company’s Own Stock (“ EITF 00-19”). The
potential payments related to the liquidated damages were accrued as
incurred and charged to operations with a corresponding increase in
accounts payable and accrued expenses (see response to Comment
1).
Based
upon the following analysis of paragraphs 12-32 of EITF 00-19, as a result
of the adoption of FSP 00-19-2, and apart from the provisions of the
registration rights agreement, the Company has concluded the warrants
would have met the requirements for equity classification at the date of
issuance.
Mr.
Jeffrey P. Riedler
U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Division
of Corporation Finance
July 3,
2008
Page
3
•
The
warrants do not include any provision requiring a cash settlement by the
Company.
•
The
warrant agreements permit the Company to settle in unregistered shares,
apart from the provisions of the registration rights
agreement.
•
The
Company has sufficient authorized and unissued shares as of the most
recent balance sheet date to settle the delivery of the underlying shares
of common stock.
•
The
warrant agreement contains an explicit limit on the number of shares to be
delivered in a share settlement.
•
There
are no required cash payments to the warrant holders in the event the
Company fails to make timely filings with the SEC.
•
There
are no required cash payments to the warrant holders if the shares
initially delivered upon settlement are subsequently sold by the warrant
holders and the sales proceeds are insufficient to provide the warrant
holders with full return of the amount due (i.e., no cash settled
"top-off" or "make-whole" provisions).
•
There
are no provisions in the warrant agreement that indicate that the warrant
holder has rights that rank higher than those of a shareholder of the
stock underlying the warrant.
•
The
warrant agreement requires net-cash settlement only in specific
circumstances in which holders of shares underlying the warrant also would
receive cash in exchange for their shares.
•
There
is no requirement in the warrants to post collateral at any point or for
any reason.
Based
upon the above analysis, the Company believes that apart from the
registration rights agreement, the Company’s warrant instruments should be
classified as equity and its policy accounting for equity instruments is
reasonable and complies with current accounting principles generally
accepted in the US.
Mr.
Jeffrey P. Riedler
U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission
Division
of Corporation Finance
July 3,
2008
Page
4
If
you have any additional comments or questions, please feel free to contact
the undersigned at (212) 318-3261.
Very
truly yours,
Merrill
M. Kraines
Enclosures
cc:
Mr.
John Krug, Senior Staff Attorney
Mary
Mast, Senior Accountant
Amy
Bruckner, Staff Accountant
James
A. Hayward, Applied DNA Sciences, Inc.
EXHIBIT
A
We
believe that our existing capital resources will enable us to fund our
operations until approximately September 2008. We believe we may be
required to seek additional capital to sustain or expand our prototype and
sample manufacturing, and sales and marketing activities, and to otherwise
continue our business operations beyond that date. We have no
commitments for any future funding, and may not be able to obtain additional
financing or grants on terms acceptable to us, if at all, in the
future. If we are unable to obtain additional capital this would
restrict our ability to grow and may require us to curtail or discontinue our
business operations. Additionally, while a reduction in our business
operations may prolong our ability to operate, that reduction would harm our
ability to implement our business strategy. If we can obtain any
equity financing, it may involve substantial dilution to our then existing
shareholders.
Product
Research and Development
We
anticipate spending approximately $15,000 for product research and development
activities during the next twelve (12) months.
Acquisition
of Plant and Equipment and Other Assets
We do not
anticipate the sale of any material property, plant or equipment during the next
12 months. We do anticipate spending approximately $100,000 on the
acquisition of leasehold improvements during the next 12 months. We
believe our current leased space is adequate to manage our growth, if any, over
the next 2 to 3 years.
Number
of Employees
We
currently have seven employees and three part-time employees. The
company expects to increase its staffing dedicated to sales, product
prototyping, manufacturing of DNA markers and forensic authentication
services. Expenses related to travel, marketing, salaries, and
general overhead will be increased as necessary to support our growth in
revenue. In order for us to attract and retain quality personnel, we
anticipate we will have to offer competitive salaries to future
employees. We anticipate that it may become desirable to add
additional full and or part time employees to discharge certain critical
functions during the next 12 months. This projected increase in
personnel is dependent upon our ability to generate revenues and obtain sources
of financing. There is no guarantee that we will be successful in
raising the funds required or generating revenues sufficient to fund the
projected increase in the number of employees. As we continue to
expand, we will incur additional costs for personnel.
Critical
Accounting Policies
Financial
Reporting Release No. 60, published by the SEC, recommends that all companies
include a discussion of critical accounting policies used in the preparation of
their financial statements. While all these significant accounting
policies impact our financial condition and results of operations, we view
certain of these policies as critical. Policies determined to be
critical are those policies that have the most significant impact on our
consolidated financial statements and require management to use a greater degree
of judgment and estimates. Actual results may differ from those
estimates.
We
believe that given current facts and circumstances, it is unlikely that applying
any other reasonable judgments or estimate methodologies would cause a material
effect on our consolidated results of operations, financial position or
liquidity for the periods presented in this prospectus.
The
accounting policies identified as critical are as follows:
·
Equity
issued with registration rights;
·
Revenue
recognition;
·
Allowance
for Doubtful Accounts;
·
Warrant
liability; and
·
Fair
value of intangible assets.
Equity
Issued with Registration Rights
In
connection with the private placement of our convertible promissory notes and
warrants to certain investors during the fiscal quarters ended December 31,
2003, December 31, 2004, March 31, 2005, March 31, 2006 and June 30, 2006,
pursuant to a registration rights agreement we agreed to file a registration
statement to register the common stock issuable upon the conversion of the
promissory notes and the exercise of the warrants and to have the registration
statement declared effective by the SEC. The registration rights
agreement provided for the payment of liquidated damages if thea registration statement was not declared
effective by the SEC within 120 days of the
private placement of the convertible promissory notes . The
liquidated damages are equal to 3.5% per month
of the aggregate proceeds , with no limitations. The liquidated damages may be paid in
cash or our common stock, at our option . Although the
promissory notes and warrants do not provide for net-cash settlement, the
existence of liquidated damages provides for a defacto net-cash settlement
option. Therefore, the common stock issuable upon the conversion of
the promissory notes and the exercise of the warrants subject to the liquidated
damages provisions of the registration rights agreement does not meet the tests
required for shareholders’ equity classification in the past, and accordingly
has been reflected between liabilities and equity in our previous consolidated
balance sheet.
14
As of
September 30, 2007, we did not have a registration statement declared effective
relating to the common stock issuable upon the conversion of the promissory
notes and the exercise of the warrants. In accordance with EITF
00-19-2, we evaluated the likelihood of having the registration statement
declared effective by the SEC. Accordingly, we have
recorded aAs of September 30, 2007, we
determined it was probable that we will be required to remit payments to these
investors because of our failure to have the registration statement declared
effective and we estimated that the obligation to make additional payments would
continue for nine months from September 30, 2007, at which time we estimated
that the registration statement would have been declared
effective. Although we were unable to estimate the exact amount of
time needed to have the registration statement declared effective, we believed
that an additional nine months would be required to complete the SEC’s comment
and review process and have the registration statement declared
effective. In accordance with SFAS No. 5, Accounting For
Contingencies, we accrued nine months of additional liquidated damages, or
$3,310,965, as a charge to operations during the year ended September 30,
2007.
As a result of not having our registration statement
declared effective, we recorded an aggregate liability of $11,750,941
as of September 30, 2007 and an increase of $7,725,585 as compared to September
30, 20062006, in order to account for thesethe potential liquidated damages accruing until the registration statement
is declared effective by the SEC. TheThis increase, which was charged to
operations as a selling, general and
administrative expense , in fiscal 2007, is comprised of $8,439,976 of
current and prior years’ stipulated
contractual obligations, plus anthe additional accrual of $3,310,965 described previously to account for
thesethe po