The UC-Berkeley-spawned gene-tweaking company that tried and failed to produce a radically cheaper antimalarial drug, then tried and failed to produce cost-effective agrofuel, then reincarnated itself as a cosmetics chemical supplier, huit yet another re cord low today, dropping to as low as $5.33 before “recovering” to $5.38 at market close — a drop of 35 cents on the day.
The stock has continued to sink despite the upbeat announcement Monday by CEO and former BP VP John Melo:
“2011 was a year of accomplishment and learning. We opened three facilities on three continents to produce initial volumes of Biofene®, our renewable farnesene, and have now produced over 1.3 million liters of Biofene, which we are selling initially as squalane and diesel,” said John Melo, CEO of Amyris. “We have proven that our technology produces renewable hydrocarbons at scale and continue to meet our current customer demand for quality and performance. With the additional financing we have secured, we have a strong position to ramp our production to meet the needs of an expanding group of customers,” he added.
But the bad news was included in the same announcement:
Aggregate revenues for year ended December 31, 2011 were $147.0 million versus $80.3 million in the prior year, with cost of products sold of $155.6 million versus $70.5 million. Research and development expense increased to $87.3 million from $55.2 million and sales, general and administrative expense increased to $83.2 million from $40.4 million. The 2011 GAAP net loss attributable to Amyris, Inc. common stockholders was $178.9 million compared with $123.9 million in the prior year. On a non-GAAP basis, excluding stock-based compensation expense and non-cash beneficial conversion feature charge booked in the third quarter of 2010, the net loss attributable to Amyris, Inc. common stockholders was $153.4 million compared to $71.4 million in the prior year. A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP results is included in this release.
Not even news of a new cash infusion could buoy the stock.
A document filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Monday revealed the company had floated more than 10 million new shares of stock at $5.78 a share, placing most with existing investor/operating partners plus a new one.
The announcement also included a notice that “On February 27, 2012, the Company completed the closing of a sale of senior unsecured convertible promissory notes (the “Note Offering”) for net proceeds of US $25,000,000 pursuant to the Securities Purchase Agreement, dated February 24, 2012 (the “Note Agreement”), between the Company and certain investment funds affiliated with Fidelity Investments Institutional Services Company, Inc.”
