Biochemicals

Jim Lane The Pharaohs of Farnesene continue to pick up momentum. In California, Amyris (AMRS) reported a net loss of $35.5M for the second quarter of 2014 on sales of $9.3M, with a 5.4 percent increase in sales over Q2 2013. Renewable product sales were $4.4M for the quarter, while “Recognized grants and collaborations revenues” reached $4.9M. In announcing results, the company highlighted: • End of quarter cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments balance of $90.2 million. • Lowest farnesene production costs to date and successful start of fragrance molecule production. • Addition of Braskem as a...

Industrial bio-chemical developer Amyris, Inc. (AMRS:  Nasdaq) has been in the headlines recently  -  some pointing to solid fundamental progress, others ‘not so much.’  Amyris recently announced a new relationship with Givaudan (GIVN: VX), a supplier of active ingredients for cosmetics.  The two have agreed to collaborate in research and development on proprietary fragrances.  Earlier this month Amyris announced the launch by Takasago International Corporation (TYO:  4914) of a new fragrance created with Amyris’ technology. Cosmetics and fragrances present large market opportunities and the strength of demand for personal care products supports strong profit margins.  The relationships are likely...

by Debra Fiakas CFA Management teams at the helm of public companies often shade the realities of their competitive or strategic situation, alternately painting better circumstances or downplaying declining fortunes.  There are myriad ways of giving management’s guidance a reality check.  Renewable bio-chemicals developer Gevo, Inc. (GEVO:  Nasdaq) is on my “watch list” as one of the more interesting companies in the Beach Boys Index.    Gevo’s financial results missed the consensus estimate in both the March and June 2012 quarters, but management made claims of important victories.  Gevo has won important decisions in the disagreement...

Jim Lane Back in September 2015, we reported that Amyris inked a multi-year agreement with the US Defense Advance Research Projects Agency, the famed DARPA that gave us everything from kevlar to the Global Positioning System and the Internet the goal in this $35M agreement with the Biological Technologies Office was to create new research and development tools and technologies compressing the time to market for any new molecule by at least 10-fold in both time and cost. The story expanded this week when we heard from Amyris (AMRS) that it had completed strain engineering and...

Jim Lane Will BioAmber complete its IPO? As the industry waits, fingers crossed, the biosuccinic developer sweetens the pot with warrants, lower share prices. In Canada, BioAmber has reduced the proposed price range for its IPO to $10-$12 per share, down from a $15-$17 range as it seeks to keep the initial public offering on track. Overall, the company now proposes to raise between $80 million and $110.4 million in the offering, now scheduled for May 13th according to the latest calendar from NASDAQ. At the offering’s midpoint and excluding the sale of up...

Jim Lane In California, Amyris (AMRS) reported Q1 revenues of $13.0M compared with $8.8M for Q1 2016, and touted the “significant increase in product sales, primarily in the personal care and health and nutrition markets, offset by a slight decline in collaboration revenue.” Collaboration revenues contributed $4.7M and product sales added $8.3M for the quarter. Big Q1 miss vs analyst expectations As Jeff Osborne at Cowen & Co noted, “Amyris reported revenue of $13.0mn, well below our estimate of $37.1mn due to much lower collaboration payments than we had anticipated. Management has highlighted that these payments can...

Novozymes (Copenhagen:NZYM-B; OTC:NVZMY) moved into yeast this week with a new organism, Innova Drive. It’s saccharomyces cerevisae — the workhouse yeast that has been powering wine fermentation since the days of Noah and the Ark. But here’s a new strain engineered to cut fermentation times up to two hours, and yield boosts of up to two percent. A 2% yield increase and a 5% faster rate of production — let’s illustrate it — would mean something like 7.1 million gallons per year of more ethanol from the same standard 100 million gallon nameplate plant. Retailing at up to $10 million dollars, per year (yes,...

By Jim Lane Over the years we’ve all seen a lot of curveballs in the advanced bioeconomy. You see companies like Valero, which lobby the United States Congress with unbridled intensity to get rid of the Renewable Fuel Standard, on the verge of becoming the single-biggest producer of RINs in the United States (with news that they might take capacity at Diamond Green Diesel up to 540 million gallons). You see companies like Solazyme which love the Renewable Fuel Standard and drive up to nearly a billion-dollar post-IPO valuation based on delivering fuels at volume, then announcing that there are even...

Jim Lane As many technologies pivot or delay, one train keeps chugging on its route to biosuccinic acid, and markets like BDO, resins and polyols. What is it about the business model that keeps on working? What can every integrated biorefinery learn from its approach? In Minneapolis, BioAmber (BIOA) just announced a contract to supply a minimum of 80% of PTTMCC Biochem’s total bio-succinic acid needs until the end of 2017. PTTMCC Biochem is a joint venture established by Mitsubishi Chemical and PTT, Thailand’s largest oil and gas company, to produce and sell polybutylene succinate (PBS),...

Jim Lane Zombies with attitude. New partnerships for making magic molecules and exploitin’ the heck out of ’em. These days, nothing in Hollywood beats a great zombie movie, more than 50 have been released in recent years. Zombies rise from the dead, and change everything around them. It’s not always pretty, or predictable, but they’re a disruptive force. Well, Amyris (AMRS) is proving to be a zombie story these days starting with being labeled a “zombie company” by The Motley Fool. TMF writes: Amyris was a pioneering industrial biotech that went from darling of the field to a company now trading well...

Jim Lane A first-to-market leader in bio-succinic acid comes to the public markets with its IPO. Can BioAmber translate a lead in succinic acid’s smallish market into leadership in a vast array of high-priced renewable chemicals? Here’s our 10-minute version of the BioAmber IPO, with a translation of the risks into English. In Minnesota, BioAmber has filed an S-1 registration statement for a proposed $150 million initial public offering. The number of shares to be offered in the proposed offering and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. The lead book-running managers for...

Jim Lane Lily flowered tulip 'Maytime' photo by Tom Konrad In California, Amyris (AMRS) announced net income of $16.4M on revenues of $6.2M for Q1 2014, after reporting a $32.6M loss in Q1 2013 on revenues of $9.0M. The change in net income was primary due to a non-cash benefit relating to outstanding convertible notes, a result of a decrease in the Company’s stock price at 3/31/14 compared to the stock price at 12/31/13. In a release accompanying the results, the company highlighted that it: Achieved combined...

Jim Lane IIn California, American Refining Group has committed to a 33.3% equity investment into Novvi , a joint venture of Amyris (AMRS) and Cosan (CZZ). Both Amyris and Cosan will continue to hold share ownership stakes in Novvi, together with ARG. It’s not a tiny market by any means. The global markets for base oils and lubricants, are expected to reach $42 billion and $70 billion in size, respectively, by 2020, according to Amyris. For ARG: Why Novvi, why now? Think novel performance. It goes in two directions. First, there’s low-carbon performance customers want...

Jim Lane Here’s our 10-minute version of the filing, slightly re-organized to make sense to Earthlings instead of aliens from the Planet Prospectus. In the Netherlands, bioplastics maker Avantium is planning an initial public offering and listing of all shares on Euronext Amsterdam and Euronext Brussels. The company expects to raise up to €100 million (USD$106 million) and complete the offering by the end of the current quarter. More than half of the offering has already been secured via commitments from cornerstone investors. Avantium’s YXY technology converts plant-based sugar into chemicals and plastics, including 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid, a precursor...