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Calyxt reports third quarter 2021 financial results


Roseville, Minnesota, USA
November 4, 2021

  • Announced new strategic direction to provide sustainably produced plant-based synthetic biology solutions to expanded group of end markets and diversified base of customers, leveraging its proprietary PlantSpring™ Technology Platform and BioFactory™ Production System-
  • Commissioned first pilot BioFactory, expected to be online by the end of 2021-
  • Appointed IBM’s Global Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, Dr. Seth Dobrin, to Calyxt’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)-
  • Launched a $50.0 million at-the-market (ATM) share issuance program-
  • Entered into a research collaboration with a leading global food ingredient manufacturer based in Asia to develop an improved soybean capable of producing an oil as a sustainable commercial alternative to palm oil-
  • Sold nearly all the 2020 grain crop to Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), generating $35.7 million in total cash since sales commenced in Q3 2020-
  • Net cash used by operating activities improved by $16.2 million year-over-year-

Calyxt, Inc. (NASDAQ: CLXT), a plant-based synthetic biotechnology company, today announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2021.

“Since I joined the Company as CEO in July, Calyxt has made significant progress, aligning on a new strategic direction that leverages our Company’s strengths and key areas of differentiation, and positions Calyxt as a synthetic biology company in its own right,” said Michael A Carr, President and Chief Executive Officer at Calyxt. “The cornerstone of our strategy is to leverage our proprietary PlantSpring technology platform with our BioFactory production system, which together enable us to provide plant-based synthetic biology solutions to important end markets and target customers, and thus help these customers produce products that meet their corporate sustainability goals. These target customers provide an enormous opportunity for Calyxt, and include companies within such industries as nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals, personal care, advanced materials and chemicals.”

Mr. Carr added: “We recently welcomed Dr. Seth Dobrin, IBM’s Global Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, to our Scientific Advisory Board. Seth’s deep experience bringing AI-based business solutions to major global corporations will be valuable as we continue to develop and augment our artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. We believe we can develop engineered biomolecules in plants for customers at faster speeds than our competitors in the synthetic biology industry. With Seth’s guidance, we aim to achieve further efficiency in our processes. Concurrently, we continue to license our technology and develop products for agricultural customers based on their needs, including our recently announced research collaboration with a leading global food ingredient manufacturer, which marked an important validation of our technology platform and for Calyxt’s evolution to a partner-driven innovation model. I look forward to driving continued progress across our business to realize value for our shareholders.”

Key accomplishments in the third quarter of 2021 and through the date of this release include:

  • In October, the Company announced the launch of a strategic initiative that will focus Calyxt on engineering synthetic biology solutions for a diversified base of customers across an expanded group of end markets, including the nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, pharmaceutical, advanced materials, and chemicals industries. Central to the strategy is the integration of the Company’s proprietary technology platform, PlantSpring, with its BioFactory production system, which together will enable Calyxt to rapidly prototype and produce complex plant-derived compounds without the need for outdoor cropping systems. The Company estimates that, aided by artificial intelligence and machine learning (AIML), it will be able to take a customer’s plant-based chemistry need through Calyxt’s development cycle and pilot-level production process within a 36-month period, with commercial scale production to commence thereafter. The final output, based upon the engineering of plant metabolism to efficiently produce plant-based compounds, is designed to provide customers across industries a safe and more sustainable supply of these compounds for use in a myriad of products and manufacturing processes.
  • The Company has commissioned its first pilot BioFactory production system and it is expected to be online by the end of 2021.
  • In October 2021, the Company announced the appointment of Seth Dobrin, Ph.D., to its SAB. Dr. Dobrin is the Global Chief Artificial Intelligence (AI) Officer at IBM and brings extensive leadership experience and a track record of transforming companies through data and AI. Dr. Dobrin’s deep experience bringing AI-based business solutions to major global corporations will be valuable as the Company continues to develop and augment the AIML capabilities of its PlantSpring platform and BioFactory production system.
  • In September 2021, the Company launched a $50.0 million ATM share issuance program. As of the date of this report, Calyxt has issued approximately 1.2 million shares of common stock under the ATM program for proceeds of $3.7 million net of commissions and payments for other share issuance costs.
  • Entered into a research collaboration with a leading global food ingredient manufacturer based in Asia to develop an improved soybean capable of producing an oil as a sustainable commercial alternative to palm oil. As part of the research collaboration, the Company will receive cash payments in each of the two years of its term. This collaboration agreement also includes a commercial option for the global food ingredient manufacturer.
  • Completed the sale of nearly all the 2020 grain crop to ADM, with the remaining grain projected to be sold by the end of the calendar year. This series of transactions, which began in the third quarter of 2020, has generated $35.7 million in total cash since sales commenced.
  • Net cash used by operating activities improved by $16.2 million from the same period a year ago driven primarily by an improvement in the Company’s working capital investment and operating expenses associated with the wind-down of its soybean product line.

Financial Results for the Three Months Ended September 30, 2021

  • Revenue was $7.8 million in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of $2.5 million, or 48 percent, from the third quarter of 2020. The increase was driven by the volume and mix of product sold in the quarter, as the Company sold grain in the third quarter of 2021 as compared to the third quarter of 2020, when the Company was primarily selling soybean oil and meal. As of September 30, 2021, the Company had sold substantially all of the 2020 grain crop.
  • Cost of goods sold was $8.3 million in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of $1.2 million, or 17 percent, from the third quarter of 2020. The increase was driven by higher volumes of product sold and higher average prices paid for grain due to increases in commodity market prices for soybeans. These increases were partially offset by the benefits resulting from the move to sell grain compared to selling primarily soybean oil and meal, as well as a $2.1 million year-over-year benefit from unrealized commodity derivative gains from hedging contracts entered into to convert fixed price grain inventories and forward purchase contracts to floating prices, consistent with how the grain was sold. As a result of the continued wind-down of the Company’s soybean product line, it held no commodity derivative contracts at September 30, 2021.
  • Gross profit was negative $0.5 million, or negative seven percent of revenue, in the third quarter of 2021, compared to negative $1.8 million, or negative 35 percent of revenue, in the third quarter of 2020. This increase of $1.3 million, or 71 percent, from the third quarter of 2020 was largely driven by the benefits resulting from the move to sell grain compared to selling primarily oil and meal, as well as a $2.1 million year-over-year benefit from unrealized commodity derivative gains, as described above.

Adjusted gross profit, a non-GAAP measure, was negative $2.7 million, or negative 35 percent of revenue, in the third quarter of 2021, compared to negative $1.3 million, or negative 24 percent of revenue, in the third quarter of 2020. The decrease in adjusted gross profit percentage was driven by the net prices paid for grain sold in the third quarter of 2021 compared to the mix of products sold and related profit margins realized in the third quarter of 2020.

See below under the heading “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information” for a discussion of adjusted gross profit and adjusted gross profit percentage and a reconciliation of gross profit and gross profit percentage, the most comparable GAAP measure, to adjusted gross profit and adjusted gross profit percentage, respectively.

  • Total operating expenses were $6.4 million in the third quarter of 2021, a decrease of $0.8 million, or 11 percent, from $7.2 million in the third quarter of 2020. The decrease was driven by lower personnel expenses as a result of cost reductions following the move to sell grain compared to selling oil and meal, other reductions in operating expenses, and restructuring costs recognized in the third quarter of 2020.
  • Net loss was $7.3 million in the third quarter of 2021, an improvement of $2.2 million, or 23 percent, from the third quarter of 2020. The improvement in net loss was driven by improved gross profits and reduced operating expenses. Net loss per share was $0.20 in the third quarter of 2021, an improvement of $0.09 per share, or 31 percent, from the third quarter of 2020. The improvement in net loss per share was driven by the change in net loss and the year-over-year increase in the weighted average share count.

Adjusted net loss was $9.1 million in the third quarter of 2021, essentially flat compared to the third quarter of 2020. Adjusted net loss per share was $0.24 in the third quarter of 2021, an improvement of $0.04 per share, or 14 percent, from the third quarter of 2020. The improvement in adjusted net loss per share was driven by the year-over-year increase in the weighted average share count.

See below under the heading “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information” for a discussion of adjusted net loss and adjusted net loss per share, and reconciliations of net loss and net loss per share, the most comparable GAAP measures, to adjusted net loss and adjusted net loss per share.

  • Adjusted EBITDA loss was $6.9 million in the third quarter of 2021, essentially flat compared to the third quarter of 2020.

See below under the heading “Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information” for a discussion of adjusted EBITDA and a reconciliation of net loss, the most comparable GAAP measure, to adjusted EBITDA.

  • Net cash used by operating activities was $3.4 million in the third quarter of 2021, an improvement of $1.8 million from the third quarter of 2020. This cash performance was driven by collections from the sale of grain to ADM, continued declines in the working capital investment associated with the wind down of that grain sales activity, and strong operating expense management.
  • Cash, cash equivalents, and restricted cash totaled $14.9 million as of September 30, 2021.

“Over the past nine months, we realized a $16.2 million year-over-year improvement in cash flow from operations as a result of increased product sales, improved gross profits, a reduction in our working capital investment associated with our soybean product line, and strong management of cash expenditures. We have raised $3.7 million since putting our ATM facility in place and are on track to achieve our target for cash operating expenses for the year of $25 million or lower, an amount that at this time is also inclusive of any BioFactory-related spending in the fourth quarter,” said Bill Koschak, Calyxt’s Chief Financial Officer. 

About the PlantSpring™ Technology Platform and BioFactory™ Production System

Calyxt’s technology platform, PlantSpring, is founded on the Company’s more than a decade of experience engineering plant metabolism, and includes its scientific knowledge, its proprietary systems, tools, and technologies; and an expanding set of AIML capabilities. This licensable platform delivers innovation through an efficient development process. The process includes identification of breakthrough compounds based on customer needs, design strategies to reprogram host cells, engineering of plant cell metabolism to optimally produce targeted plant-based chemistries, and production of those target chemistries at laboratory scale. Calyxt has developed early-stage AIML capabilities in PlantSpring, which enable learning and adaptation of knowledge gained from past activity and can be combined with predictive analytics to rapidly prototype and provide feedback, accelerating the time to complete the design-engineer-verify development cycle and helping mitigate the risk associated with commercial scale-up. As a result, Calyxt believes it can develop biomolecules in plants for customers at faster speeds than its competitors in the synthetic biology industry. The output from the PlantSpring platform integrates with the Company’s newly commissioned BioFactory production system.


The BioFactory production system is the culmination of the work of Calyxt’s researchers and will enable the Company to expand its production methods from solely outdoor agriculture systems to also include controlled environment, bioreactor-based production systems. The BioFactory harnesses the potential of plant cells in a multicellular matrixed structure and utilizes nutrient media for its production. The BioFactory leverages multiple cell types, and the multicellular matrix structures enable processing of plant-based chemistries of increased complexity relative to those possible using traditional fermentation systems or single cell plant culture methods. In addition, the speed of the matrix growth over time is expected to accelerate the production of the compound at scale. As a result, Calyxt’s production system is capable of unlocking the power of plants to produce complex compounds that are finite, difficult to source sustainably, and that may not be able to be produced using other production methods. Calyxt has been running lab-scale bioreactors for several months and its first pilot-scale bioreactor has been commissioned and is expected to be online by the end of 2021. There may be a range of vessel sizes between the initial pilot facility and commercial production. For transition from pilot to commercialization, the Company’s current plan is to use third parties, referred to as infrastructure partners, for at-scale BioFactory production. Because of its production methodology, Calyxt believes the BioFactory has the potential to be one of the most sustainable production systems across industries.

About Calyxt:

Calyxt (Nasdaq: CLXT) is a plant-based synthetic biotechnology company. The Company leverages its proprietary PlantSpring™ technology platform to engineer innovative materials and products for its customers to help them meet their sustainability goals. Calyxt’s diversified offerings are primarily delivered through its proprietary BioFactory™ production system. For more information, visit www.calyxt.com.

PlantSpring, BioFactory, and the Calyxt logo are trademarks of Calyxt, Inc. Any other trademarks belong to their respective owners.



More news from: Calyxt, Inc.


Website: http://www.calyxt.com

Published: November 4, 2021

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