ASX 300 Share-based Payments expense analysis

December 8, 2025

Employee expenses are typically one of the most material expenses a business pays. Within employee expenses is the share-based payments (SBP) expense: the cost of granting equity. This is usually not an issue. In fact, for companies that would be otherwise cash constrained, it is a smart method of paying employees competitively while conserving cash. While some parts of the world are comfortable with dilution arising from paying employees in stock instead of cash, Australia and New Zealand are not. However, given ASX listed companies antediluvian and opaque disclosure of employee equity dilution, there is a greater reliance on accounting measures of share-based payments to get a handle on its extent.

We have reviewed the share-based payments expense for the ASX 300. Whilst it is no surprise that the biggest spender is the Information Technology sector, there are a few surprising additions from other sectors.

Our sample comprises the ASX 300 companies as of the September rebalance which disclosed a delineated SBP expense (250 companies). Table 1 below shows the summary statistics for the full sample:

Table 1: ASX 300 Share-based Payments Summary Statistics (n=250)

Statistics

Percentage of
Market Capitalisation

Percentage of Net Assets

Percentage of Revenue

Percentage of Cash from Operations

Per Employee

Average

0.3%

1.1%

8.3%

2.7%

$13,688

25th Percentile

0.1%

0.2%

0.2%

0.6%

$861

50th Percentile

0.2%

0.4%

0.4%

1.6%

$2,886

75th Percentile

0.3%

1.1%

1.2%

3.9%

$7,238

The average amounts are heavily skewed by outliers, typically smaller growth-oriented companies. The companies with the largest SBP expense per metric are:

  • Market capitalisation: Botanix Pharmaceuticals, a company in the Health Care sector, with 8.0% SBP.
  • Net assets: Botanix Pharmaceuticals, a company in the Health Care sector, with 25.2% SBP.
  • Revenue: Alpha HPA, a company in the Materials sector, with 1343.8% SBP.
  • Cash from operations: Deep Yellow, a company in the Energy sector, with 133.2% SBP.
  • Per employee: NexGen Energy, a company in the Energy sector, with $383,558 SBP.

The charts below shows the spread of SBP per metric. The Utilities sector has been excluded as the sample count is less than 4.

Figure 1: Distribution of SBP as a percentage of market capitalisation

 

 

Figure 2: Distribution of SBP as a percentage of net assets

 

 

Figure 3: Distribution of SBP as a percentage of revenue

 

 

Figure 4: Distribution of SBP as a percentage of cash from operations

 

Figure 5: Distribution of SBP per employee

The figures above show that the Information Technology sector has the highest median SBP spend per metric. They also show that it typically is the sector with the highest spread of outcomes. Most importantly, it is the highest SBP expense per employee, meaning that employees in this sector receive the most equity remuneration.

Given the heightened attention SBP expense receives, companies may want to explicitly call it out in disclosures, provide a rationale, and accompany disclosures with an analysis of why it is considered appropriate and better than alternatives.