Evogene Reports Third Quarter 2020 Financial Results
Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ: EVGN) reported its Q3 2020 financial results, achieving revenue of approximately $0.3 million, up from $0.1 million in Q3 2019. The operating loss widened to about $5.6 million, largely due to increased R&D and G&A expenses. The company raised $22 million through two equity offerings, aiming to enhance its subsidiaries' product pipelines and support expansion in various sectors, including immuno-oncology and medical cannabis. Evogene's cash position stands at roughly $43.5 million, with net cash usage projected between $13-15 million for the full year.
- Raised $22 million through two equity offerings to bolster product pipelines.
- Revenue increased to $0.3 million in Q3 2020 from $0.1 million in 2019.
- Successful pre-clinical results for Biomica's BMC128 enhancing immunotherapy.
- Canonic received approval for propagation of medical cannabis seedlings.
- Operating loss increased to approximately $5.6 million in Q3 2020.
- R&D expenses increased to approximately $4.0 million from $3.6 million.
- Net loss for Q3 2020 was approximately $5.4 million, compared to $4.5 million in 2019.
REHOVOT, Israel, Nov. 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ: EVGN), (TASE: EVGN), a leading computational biology company targeting to revolutionize life-science product development across several market segments, announced today its financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020.
Ofer Haviv, Evogene's President and CEO, stated: "We continue to be very pleased with the progress being achieved by our subsidiaries, which has been very rapid, and in certain areas even exceeding our plans, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This progress was one of the factors in Evogene's decision to raise additional funds, to further support its collective ambitious business targets.
"The company recently completed two rounds of fundraising, for a total of
"We are confident that the net proceeds from our recent fundraisings, combined with our existing cash resources, will provide the funding required to achieve a number of key objectives in the further development of the promising product pipelines of our subsidiaries, and to continue to enhance and expand our unique computational predictive biology platform.
Our key objectives include the following:
- In Biomica, to support pre-clinical and anticipated proof-of-concept clinical trials next year in the immuno-oncology program.
- In Canonic, to support development of unique varieties as well as cultivation for anticipated commercialization in 2022 of medical cannabis products in Israel.
- In AgPlenus, to support its herbicide development towards the stage of an "Optimized Lead", as well as expand the insecticide program.
- In Lavie Bio, to support the route to anticipated commercialization of a wheat bio-stimulant in 2022, as well as to support product development in the bio-pesticide program.
- Within Evogene, the expansion of our capabilities in genome editing, including the leveraging of our legacy seed traits activities.
- Within Evogene, the enhancement and expansion of our CPB product solutions, MicroBoost AI, ChemPass AI and GeneRator AI, adding further to our technological and computational competitive edge.
"We intend for these capital raises, combined with our existing cash resources, to provide the support our subsidiaries require in order to reach attractive positions for Evogene to potentially capitalize on their achievements and to unlock their value.
"To summarize, I am extremely proud of the progress we are achieving and am confident of our subsidiaries' ability to continue to advance their product pipelines and execute on their business targets. Therefore, we enthusiastically look forward to reporting on our continuing progress and achievements to our investors, both long-term and new." concluded Mr. Haviv.
Recent Subsidiary Developments:
Biomica (subsidiary focused on human-microbiome based therapeutics)
- Immuno-Oncology Program - Biomica recently announced positive pre-clinical, in-vivo results, for its leading product candidate, live bacterial product (LBP) BMC128, which consists of four live bacterial strains aimed to enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy (immune checkpoint inhibitors – ICI). These results demonstrated that treatment with BMC128, both prior to and in combination with ICI, significantly improved anti-tumor activity in mice. The best responding group's improvement (receiving BMC128 prior to the combination treatment) was approximately
50% higher in comparison to the group that only received the ICI therapy.
Also in this program, Biomica contracted the services of Biose Industrie, a leading French contract manufacturing organization (CDMO), and announced that it has initiated scale-up processes for GMP production of BMC128 in preparation for the expected initiation of first-in-man proof-of-concept clinical trials in 2021.
Biomica is currently in discussions with a number of leading medical centers in Israel regarding conducting this proof-of-concept, pilot study.
- Inflammatory Bowel Disorders (IBD) program - Biomica is advancing in the pre-clinical phase, having initiated new pre-clinical studies at the University of North Carolina (UNC), at the lab of Professor Balfour Sartor. Prof. Sartor is a leading researcher and thought leader in IBD in the United States and a member of Biomica's Scientific Advisory Board.
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) program - Biomica is progressing according to plan, currently concluding the discovery phase, with the computational identification of microbes with desired functionality.
Canonic (wholly owned subsidiary focused on medical cannabis)
- Propagation license - Canonic recently announced that it has received approval from the Israeli Medical Cannabis Agency for the propagation of medical cannabis seedlings, which will allow the company to proceed with the execution of its commercialization plan. The company intends to deliver its first batch of seedlings to third-party cultivation farms during 2021, and aims to release its first product in Israel in 2022.
AgPlenus (subsidiary focused on ag-chemicals)
- During the quarter, Mr. Douglas Eisner joined AgPlenus as its new CEO. Mr. Eisner brings over 20 years of versatile business and legal experience, previously holding various senior leadership roles, and leading successful fundraising rounds and a company acquisition. Mr. Eisner is located in North Carolina, United States.
Lavie Bio (subsidiary focused on ag-biologicals)
- Bio-fungicide Program - Lavie Bio recently announced positive trial results for two of its leading bio-fungicide product candidates, LAV311 and LAV 312. These candidates target Bunch rots, devastating diseases that severely impact crop output. These vineyard trials, conducted in target locations in Europe and the United States, resulted in significantly better efficacy and consistency than existing comparable commercial biological benchmarks, reducing crop damage by
60% -70% in comparison to the control tested in these trials.
Consolidated financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2020:
Equity Offerings: On September 3, 2020, the company raised
Cash position
: As of September 30, 2020, Evogene had approximately
During the first nine months of 2020, the company's consolidated net cash usage amounted to
For the full year of 2020, the company estimates that its net cash usage, excluding cash usage of Lavie Bio, will be within the range of
Evogene does not have bank debt.
Revenues for the third quarter of 2020 were approximately
R&D expenses for the third quarter of 2020 were approximately $4.0 million, in comparison to approximately
Business Development expenses for the third quarter of 2020 were approximately
G&A expenses
for the third quarter of 2020 were approximately
Operating loss for the third quarter of 2020 was approximately
Net financing income for the third quarter of 2020 was approximately
Loss for the third quarter of 2020 was approximately
Conference Call & Webcast Details:
Date: November 18, 2020
Time: 9:00 a.m. EST; 16:00 Israel time
Dial-in: 1-888-281-1167 toll free from the United States, or +972-3-918-0609 internationally
Webcast: Available at www.evogene.com.
You may submit a question for management to address during the call until 8:00 am EST; 15:00 Israel time to IR@evogene.com.
Replay Information: A replay of the conference call will be available approximately three hours following the completion of the call.
To access the replay, please dial 1-888-326-9310 toll free from the United States, or +972-3-925-5901 internationally. The replay will be accessible through November 20, 2020, and an archive of the webcast will be available on the company's website for the following 30 days.
About Evogene Ltd.:
Evogene (NASDAQ: EVGN), (TASE: EVGN) is a leading computational biology company targeting to revolutionize product development for life-science based industries, including human health, agriculture, and industrial applications. Incorporating a deep understanding of biology and leveraging Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, Evogene established its unique technology, the Computational Predictive Biology (CPB) platform. The CPB platform is designed to computationally discover and develop life-science products based on microbes, small molecules and genetic elements as the core components for such products. Evogene holds a number of subsidiaries utilizing the CPB platform, for the development of human microbiome-based therapeutics, medical cannabis, ag-biologicals, ag-chemicals, seed traits and ag-solutions for castor oil production.
For more information, please visit www.evogene.com
Forward Looking Statements:
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" relating to future events. These statements may be identified by words such as "may", "could", "expects", "intends", "anticipates", "plans", "believes", "scheduled", "estimates" or words of similar meaning. For example, Evogene is using forward-looking statements in this press release when it discusses its (and its subsidiaries') targets, objectives, pipeline and goals and the expected timing thereof, its support of its subsidiaries, the sufficiency of its funding to achieve key objectives and to continue to enhance and expand its computational predictive biology platform, its estimated cash usage for 2020, capturing the value of its technologies and subsidiaries, entering into collaboration agreements, its upcoming milestones and potential alternatives to capitalize on Evogene's subsidiaries' achievements. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions, describe opinions about future events, involve certain risks and uncertainties which are difficult to predict and are not guarantees of future performance. Therefore, actual future results, performance or achievements of Evogene and its subsidiaries may differ materially from what is expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond the control of Evogene and its subsidiaries, including, without limitation, the global spread of COVID-19, or the Coronavirus, the various restrictions deriving therefrom and those risk factors contained in Evogene's reports filed with the applicable securities authorities. In addition, Evogene and its subsidiaries rely, and expect to continue to rely, on third parties to conduct certain activities, such as their field-trials and pre-clinical studies, and if these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, comply with regulatory requirements or meet expected deadlines (including as a result of the effect of the Coronavirus), Evogene and its subsidiaries may experience significant delays in the conduct of their activities. Evogene and its subsidiaries disclaim any obligation or commitment to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or developments or changes in expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions.
Evogene Investor Contact: | US Investor Relations: |
Rivka Neufeld | Joseph Green |
Investor Relations and Public Relations Manager | Edison Group |
T: +972-8-931-1940 | T: +1 646-653-7030 |
Laine Yonker | |
Edison Group | |
T: +1 646-653-7035 |
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION | ||||
U.S. dollars in thousands (except share and per share data) | ||||
September 30, | December 31, | |||
2020 | 2019 | |||
Unaudited | Audited | |||
CURRENT ASSETS: | ||||
Cash and cash equivalents | $ 41,494 | $ 34,748 | ||
Marketable securities | - | 2,128 | ||
Short-term bank deposits | 2,000 | 10,000 | ||
Trade receivables | 34 | 72 | ||
Other receivables and prepaid expenses | 1,864 | 2,079 | ||
45,392 | 49,027 | |||
LONG-TERM ASSETS: | ||||
Long-term deposits | 9 | 9 | ||
Operating lease right-of-use-assets | 2,077 | 2,671 | ||
Property, plant and equipment, net | 2,133 | 2,583 | ||
Intangible assets, net | 16,374 | 17,074 | ||
20,593 | 22,337 | |||
$ 65,985 | $ 71,364 | |||
CURRENT LIABILITIES: | ||||
Trade payables | $ 701 | $ 1,001 | ||
Employees and payroll accruals | 1,730 | 2,079 | ||
Operating lease liability | 789 | 895 | ||
Liabilities in respect of government grants | 83 | 37 | ||
Deferred revenues and other advances | 132 | 386 | ||
Other payables | 1,204 | 1,348 | ||
4,639 | 5,746 | |||
LONG-TERM LIABILITIES: | ||||
Operating lease liability | 1,672 | 2,076 | ||
Liabilities in respect of government grants | 3,604 | 3,325 | ||
5,276 | 5,401 | |||
SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY: | ||||
Ordinary shares of NIS 0.02 par value: Authorized - 150,000,000 ordinary shares; Issued | 177 | 142 | ||
Share premium and other capital reserve | 215,907 | 205,904 | ||
Accumulated deficit | (171,154) | (155,902) | ||
Equity attributable to equity holders of the Company | 44,930 | 50,144 | ||
Non-controlling interests | 11,140 | 10,073 | ||
Total equity | 56,070 | 60,217 | ||
$ 65,985 | $ 71,364 | |||
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF PROFIT OR LOSS | ||||||||||
U.S. dollars in thousands (except share and per share data) | ||||||||||
Nine months ended | Three months ended | Year ended | ||||||||
2020 | 2019 | 2020 | 2019 | 2019 | ||||||
Unaudited | Audited | |||||||||
Revenues | $ 689 | $ 637 | $ 316 | $ 97 | $ 753 | |||||
Cost of revenues | 228 | 253 | 75 | 81 | 334 | |||||
Gross profit | 461 | 384 | 241 | 16 | 419 | |||||
Operating expenses: | ||||||||||
Research and development, net | 12,476 | 10,627 | 3,998 | 3,603 | 15,791 | |||||
Business development | 2,002 | 1,420 | 564 | 450 | 2,029 | |||||
General and administrative | 3,620 | 2,622 | 1,232 | 876 | 3,765 | |||||
Total operating expenses | 18,098 | 14,669 | 5,794 | 4,929 | 21,585 | |||||
Operating loss | (17,637) | (14,285) | (5,553) | (4,913) | (21,166) | |||||
Financing income | 858 | 2,517 | 215 | 647 | 2,630 | |||||
Financing expenses | (657) | (655) | (73) | (265) | (555) | |||||
Financing income, net | 201 | 1,862 | 142 | 382 | 2,075 | |||||
Loss before taxes on income | (17,436) | (12,423) | (5,411) | (4,531) | (19,091) | |||||
Taxes on income (tax benefit) | 7 | - | - | (3) | 24 | |||||
Loss | $ (17,443) | $ (12,423) | $ (5,411) | $ (4,528) | $ (19,115) | |||||
Attributable to: | ||||||||||
Equity holders of the Company | $ (15,252) | $ (12,034) | $ (4,786) | $ (4,231) | $ (18,112) | |||||
Non-controlling interests | (2,191) | (389) | (625) | (297) | (1,003) | |||||
$ (17,443) | $ (12,423) | $ (5,411) | $ (4,528) | $ (19,115) | ||||||
Basic and diluted loss per share, | $ (0.58) | $ (0.47) | $ (0.17) | $ (0.16) | $ (0.70) | |||||
Weighted average number of shares | 26,161,932 | 25,754,297 | 26,977,201 | 25,754,297 | 25,754,297 | |||||
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED INTERIM STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS | ||||||||||
U.S. dollars in thousands | ||||||||||
Nine months ended | Three months ended | Year ended | ||||||||
2020 | 2019 | 2020 | 2019 | 2019 | ||||||
Unaudited | Audited | |||||||||
Cash flows from operating activities | ||||||||||
Loss | $ (17,443) | $ (12,423) | $ (5,411) | $ (4,528) | $ (19,115) | |||||
Adjustments to reconcile loss to net cash | ||||||||||
Adjustments to the profit or loss items: | ||||||||||
Depreciation | 1,400 | 1,906 | 484 | 591 | 2,395 | |||||
Amortization of intangible assets | 700 | 194 | 234 | 194 | 374 | |||||
Share-based compensation | 3,482 | 802 | 691 | 355 | 1,578 | |||||
Net financing income | (223) | (2,647) | (154) | (1,025) | (2,414) | |||||
Loss from sale of property, plant & equipment | - | 12 | - | 12 | 12 | |||||
Taxes on income (tax benefit) | 7 | - | - | (3) | 24 | |||||
5,366 | 267 | 1,255 | 124 | 1,969 | ||||||
Changes in asset and liability items: | ||||||||||
Decrease in trade receivables | 38 | 13 | 25 | - | 88 | |||||
Decrease (increase) in other receivables | 141 | (600) | (249) | 56 | (1,250) | |||||
Increase in long-term deposits | - | - | - | - | (10) | |||||
Increase (decrease) in trade payables | (151) | (190) | 83 | 71 | (122) | |||||
Increase (decrease) in employees and payroll accruals | (349) | (250) | 134 | 114 | (33) | |||||
Increase (decrease) in other payables | (93) | (3) | 136 | 75 | 375 | |||||
Decrease in deferred revenues and other advances | (254) | (313) | (426) | (120) | (45) | |||||
(668) | (1,343) | (297) | 196 | (997) | ||||||
Cash received (paid) during the period for: | ||||||||||
Interest received | 291 | 692 | 125 | 637 | 803 | |||||
Interest paid | (182) | (198) | (64) | (57) | (302) | |||||
Tax received (paid) | (7) | - | - | 3 | (24) | |||||
Net cash used in operating activities | $ (12,643) | $ (13,005) | $ (4,392) | $ (3,625) | $ (17,666) | |||||
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS | ||||||||||||
U.S. dollars in thousands | ||||||||||||
Nine months ended | Three months ended | Year ended | ||||||||||
2020 | 2019 | 2020 | 2019 | 2019 | ||||||||
Unaudited | Audited | |||||||||||
Cash flows from investing activities: | ||||||||||||
Purchase of property, plant and equipment | $ (579) | $ (518) | $ (164) | $ (321) | $ (900) | |||||||
Proceeds from sale of marketable securities | 2,097 | 22,828 | - | 2,833 | 27,084 | |||||||
Purchase of marketable securities | - | (1,637) | - | - | (1,637) | |||||||
Proceeds from (investment in) bank deposits, net | 8,000 | (6,675) | 5,000 | (6,675) | 12,592 | |||||||
Net cash provided by (used in) investing activities | 9,518 | 13,998 | 4,836 | (4,163) | 37,139 | |||||||
Cash flows from financing activities: | ||||||||||||
Proceeds from exercise of options | 13 | - | 13 | - | - | |||||||
Proceeds from government grants | 320 | 406 | 145 | 119 | 493 | |||||||
Repayment of operating lease liability | (484) | (536) | (155) | (173) | (597) | |||||||
Issuance of subsidiary's ordinary shares to non-controlling interests | - | 10,000 | - | 10,000 | 10,000 | |||||||
Issuance of ordinary shares | 9,801 | - | 9,801 | - | - | |||||||
Repayment of government grants | (22) | (586) | (11) | (11) | (590) | |||||||
Net cash provided by financing activities | 9,628 | 9,284 | 9,793 | 9,935 | 9,306 | |||||||
Exchange rate differences - cash and cash equivalent balances | 243 | 380 | 183 | 223 | 159 | |||||||
Increase in cash and cash equivalents | 6,746 | 10,657 | 10,420 | 2,370 | 28,938 | |||||||
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of the period | 34,748 | 5,810 | 31,074 | 14,097 | 5,810 | |||||||
Cash and cash equivalents, end of the period | $ 41,494 | $ 16,467 | $ 41,494 | $ 16,467 | $ 34,748 | |||||||
Significant non-cash activities | ||||||||||||
Acquisition of property, plant and equipment | $ 17 | $ 130 | $ 17 | $ 47 | $ 216 | |||||||
Increase of operating lease right-of-use-assets | -- | -- | -- | -- | $ 3,437 | |||||||
Acquisition of intangible assets from non-controlling interests against issuance of subsidiary's ordinary shares | -- | $ 17,448 | -- | $ 17,448 | $ 17,448 | |||||||
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SOURCE Evogene
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