Jobs at Gevo
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...
Investing in Biopolymers
Last month Eastman Chemical Company (EMN: NYSE) announced an expansion of its urethane extrusion line at one of its specialty chemical plants. This one located near Martinsville, Virginia makes paint protection films and window films. Urethane is perfect to protect surfaces in a home or business. It is not brittle like plastic, but has excellent tolerance for grease and oils. When exposed to the elements it does not rot or degrade over time like rubber.
Shareholders likely cheered the development in Virginia for potential addition to market share. Eastman grabbed $9.6 billion in sales from the specialty chemicals market in 2017, earning $1.4 billion in net income or...
Ramp-Up Delay Sends Solazyme Stock Into Free-Fall
Jim Lane Revenue and customer numbers are up at Solazyme (SZYM), 60% YOY growth from Q3 2013 to Q3 2014. But a slowdown in the rollout at Moema capacity leads to a spectacular 58% one-day drop in the stock price. What happened? Solazyme has been on a relatively steady downward trajectory for the past few quarters, dropping from the $11-$13 range and down into the $6-$8 range. And then plunged a stunning 58 percent to $3.14 yesterday – amidst downgrades by Cowen & Company, Pacific Crest and Baird generally to Market Perform or Neutral, and remains...
The Velocity of Amyris
Jim Lane What makes Amyris (AMRS), Amyris? We look at the products, the evolution of the story, the partners, the focus on yield, and deeper into the story of Rate. “I mean, man, whither goest thou? Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night?” “Whither goest thou?” echoed Dean with his mouth open. We sat and didn’t know what to say; there was nothing to talk about any more. The only thing to do was go.” Jack Kerouac, On the Road Amyris experienced last month what CEO John Melo referred to as “our...
Amyris’ Sugarcane-derived Vaccine Adjuvant
by Jim Lane
COVID-19 has changed the way we do things…like drink more alcohol, wash our hands more, wear a mask, limit our gatherings and trips, but positive things have come about too. More time to connect with friends and family via online tools, a new respect for healthcare, agriculture and other essential workers, breathing cleaner air, and finding new ways to connect, entertain and innovate. Even in the bioeconomy, companies are doing the “pandemic pivot” and creating innovations to improve our future.
We’ve covered how the ethanol industry jumped in to save the day with hand sanitizer production, but today...
Amyris’ Mysterious Partner
Jim Lane In California, Amyris (AMRS) has a new partner, described fetchingly yet with near-to-complete vagueness as a “a leader in food ingredients and nutraceuticals” which is roughly as helpful as describing a person as “someone who enjoys ice cream”. Some ice cream there is, nevertheless, in this agreement, which will bring a short-term collaboration investment of $10 million, an equity investment of up to $20 million at $1.40 per share, and $100 million in annual revenue starting in 2017 connected to the production and cost improvement of fermentation molecules. One thing, and the only one, we discover...
From Fuel To Fudge
by Debra Fiakas CFA This week the last reminder of the renewable fuels business that was once called Solazyme will be gone. The old Solazyme has abandoned the goal of producing renewable fuels using the oils from algae. Instead, under a new name TerraVia, the company is directing its algae cultivation and harvesting knowhow toward growing edible algae for food and personal care products. To make the change complete the old stock symbol ‘SYZM’ gives way this week to a new trading symbol ‘TVIA.’ No doubt there is more than just a little hope in Terra...
Elevance’s $100M IPO: The 10-Minute Version
Jim Lane Like to quickly understand the surge in renewable chemicals and one of the hottest companies in the hottest sector of the bioconomy? Here’s our 10-minute version of the IPO from Elevance Renewable Sciences. Complete with the risks, translated into English from the original SEC-speak. In Illinois, Elevance Renewable Sciences filed its S-1 registration statement relating to a proposed $100 million initial public offering. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. The company indicated that it has apply to list the stock on NASDAQ under the ERSI symbol. The...
Biofuels & Biobased Earnings Roundup: Amyris
by Jim Lane
The Top Line. In California, Amyris (AMRS) reported Q2 GAAP revenue for the second quarter of 2018 of $24.8 million, compared with $25.7 million for the second quarter of 2017. Grants and collaborations revenue was $11.4 million for the second quarter of 2018 compared with $10.3 million for the year-ago period. The company noted that Q2 revenue was $24.8 million compared with the same period in 2017 of $21.7 million when adjusted for the low margin product sales on contracts assigned to DSM (DSM.AS). This reflects 15% growth on an absolute basis. GAAP net loss for the first half was $89.1...
A Decade Of Unexpected Curves In The Bioeconomy
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...
Amyris Boards The Sweet Fleet
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...
Beets to Gas
by Debra Fiakas, CFA
In recent weeks management from Global Bioenergies (ALGBE: EURONEXT)made the rounds among New York City investors. The French specialty chemical developer is trying to win new friends in the U.S. for its bio-isobutene made through the fermentation of organic materials. Isobutene, also called isobutylene, is a four-molecule hydrocarbon that is a foundational chemical in a wide range of common products from gasoline additives to cosmetics. Until recently, isobutene was made exclusively in the crude oil refinement process. It is one of the many by-products of crude oil refining that helps pad the profit margins of big oil...
BioAmber’s $150 Million IPO: The 10-Minute Version
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...
