REHOVOT, Israel, March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Evogene Ltd. (NASDAQ: EVGN) (TASE: EVGN.TA), a leading company in leveraging computational biology to design novel products for life-science-based industries, announces today its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year, ending December 31, 2019.
Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s President and CEO, stated, “2019 has been a turning point year in the life of the company, with the completion of the organizational plan introduced at the beginning of 2018.
“The rationale behind this change was to capture the value of our diverse capabilities in computational biology. To this end, we established dedicated subsidiaries in specific markets, while at the heart of all activities is Evogene’s unique technology, the CPB (Computational Predictive Biology) platform serving as the subsidiaries’ core technological advantage.
“The transition to this structure was completed in 2019 with the establishment of Lavie Bio (ag-biologicals) and Canonic (medical cannabis), joining the companies Biomica (human microbiome based therapeutics) and AgPlenus (ag-chemicals), which were established in the last two years, and joining the more long-standing, Casterra (ag-solutions for castor oil production).
“Evogene will continue to focus on maintaining the technological edge of the CPB platform leveraging the revolutions in Big Data and Artificial Intelligence while incorporating a deep understanding of biology, and the subsidiaries will continue to utilize this platform to support their product development pipeline.
“The initial achievements reached by our subsidiaries during 2019, presented below, are confirmation that the undertaking of this strategic and organizational change was warranted and we look forward to the fruit of this new strategy in the coming years, as demonstrated by the following targeted milestones for 2020.”
2019 Highlights
Lavie Bio
Biomica
Canonic
AgPlenus
Casterra
Targeted 2020 Milestones
Looking forward to 2020, the Company’s subsidiaries target to reach the following described milestones.
Lavie Bio
Biomica
Canonic
AgPlenus
Casterra
“An on-going effort for the Company and its subsidiaries is to identify and evaluate alternatives to address their financial needs to support and accelerate their continuing development efforts. We aim to do so in a manner that will provide both the required resources to support and accelerate the subsidiaries’ activities; while at the same time maintaining shareholder value for Evogene shareholders, as demonstrated by the Corteva investment in Lavie Bio. ” Mr. Haviv concluded
Consolidated financial results for the period ending December 31, 2019:
Cash position: As of December 31, 2019, Evogene had approximately $47 million in consolidated net cash, short-term bank deposits and marketable securities. The Company cash usage amounted to $17.6 million during the full year of 2019 and $5.2 million during the fourth quarter of 2019, in range with its cash usage estimate for 2019 of $16 to $18 million dollars.
$17.6 million of Evogene’s consolidated cash is appropriated to its subsidiary, Lavie Bio, including a $10 million investment received from Corteva during the third quarter of 2019.
For the full year of 2020, the Company estimates that its cash usage, excluding cash usage of Lavie Bio or payments from a significant collaboration, will be within the range of 14-16 million dollars. This cash use is mostly appropriated to Evogene’s subsidiaries, mainly Biomica, AgPlenus, Canonic and Evogene’s expenses as a public company such as D&O insurance and others.
Evogene does not have bank debt.
Revenues for the full year of 2019, were $0.8 million versus $1.8 million in 2018. Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2019, were $0.1 million versus $0.6 million in the same period the previous year. Revenues primarily consist of third-party research and development payments. These revenues represent R&D cost reimbursement and milestone payments under our various collaboration agreements. The majority of these agreements also provide for royalties or other forms of revenue sharing from successfully developed products.
Gross profit in 2019 was $419 thousand in comparison to $295 thousand in 2018. Gross profit for the fourth quarter of 2019 was $35 thousand in comparison to $8 thousand in the fourth quarter of 2018.
R&D expenses in 2019 were $15.8 million in comparison to $14.7 million in 2018. R&D expenses for the fourth quarter of 2019 were $5.2 million in comparison to $3.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. R&D expenses mostly represent product development activities of the Company and its subsidiaries, which include computational work, lab & greenhouse assays, field-trials and pre-clinical studies carried out by third parties.
The increase in R&D expenses during the quarter is attributed to payments made to third parties for (i) pre-clinical studies conducted for Biomica and (ii) field trials conducted in target locations for Lavie Bio, as well as (iii) the acquisition of a genomic-unique seed collection for Canonic.
Operating loss in 2019 was approximately $21 million in comparison to $20 million in 2018. Operating loss for the fourth quarter of 2019 was $6.9 million in comparison to $5.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Net financing income in 2019 was $2.1 million in comparison to net financing expense of $0.8 million in 2018. Net financing income for the fourth quarter of 2019 was $0.2 million in comparison to net financing expense of $0.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2018.
Loss for the full year of 2019 was approximately $19 million in comparison to a loss of approximately $21 million during 2018. Loss for the fourth quarter of 2019 was $6.7 million in comparison to a loss of $5.8 million during fourth quarter of 2018.
Conference Call & Webcast Details:
Date: March 4th, 2020
Time: 9:00am EST; 16:00 Israel time
Dial-in: 1-888-668-9141 toll free from the United States, or +972-3-918-0609 internationally
Webcast: Available at www.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 +972-3-925-5904 internationally. The replay will be accessible through March 6, 2020, and an archive of the webcast will be available on the Company’s website.
About Evogene Ltd.:
Evogene (NASDAQ:EVGN, TASE: EVGN.TA) is a leading company in leveraging computational biology to design novel products for life-science-based industries including human health, agriculture, and industrial applications. Leveraging Big Data and Artificial Intelligence while incorporating a deep understanding of biology, Evogene established its unique technology, the Computational Predictive Biology (CPB) platform, to computationally design microbes, small molecules and genes as the core components for life-science 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. 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, those risk factors contained in Evogene’s reports filed with the applicable securities authority, as well as a result of the Cornonavirus. 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.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF FINANCIAL POSITION |
||||
U.S. dollars in thousands (except share and per share data) |
||||
December 31, |
December 31, |
|||
2019 |
2018 |
|||
Unaudited |
Audited |
|||
CURRENT ASSETS: |
||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
$ 34,748 |
$ 5,810 |
||
Marketable securities |
2,128 |
26,065 |
||
Short-term bank deposits |
10,000 |
22,592 |
||
Trade receivables |
72 |
160 |
||
Other receivables and prepaid expenses |
2,079 |
861 |
||
49,027 |
55,488 |
|||
LONG-TERM ASSETS: |
||||
Long-term deposits |
9 |
19 |
||
Operating lease right-of-use-assets |
2,671 |
– |
||
Property, plant and equipment, net |
2,583 |
3,187 |
||
Intangible assets, net |
17,074 |
– |
||
22,337 |
3,206 |
|||
$ 71,364 |
$ 58,694 |
|||
CURRENT LIABILITIES: |
||||
Trade payables |
$ 1,001 |
$ 1,015 |
||
Employees and payroll accruals |
2,071 |
2,081 |
||
Operating lease liability |
895 |
– |
||
Liabilities in respect of government grants |
37 |
988 |
||
Deferred revenues and other advances |
386 |
412 |
||
Other payables |
1,339 |
935 |
||
5,729 |
5,431 |
|||
LONG-TERM LIABILITIES: |
||||
Operating lease liability |
2,076 |
– |
||
Liabilities in respect of government grants |
3,325 |
2,898 |
||
Deferred revenues and other advances |
9 |
28 |
||
Severance pay liability, net |
8 |
31 |
||
5,418 |
2,957 |
|||
SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY: |
||||
Ordinary shares of NIS 0.02 par value: |
142 |
142 |
||
Share premium and other capital reserve |
205,904 |
187,701 |
||
Accumulated deficit |
(155,902) |
(137,790) |
||
Equity attributable to equity holders of the Company |
50,144 |
50,053 |
||
Non-controlling interests |
10,073 |
253 |
||
Total equity |
60,217 |
50,306 |
||
$ 71,364 |
$ 58,694 |
|||
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF PROFIT OR LOSS |
||||||||
U.S. dollars in thousands (except share and per share data) |
||||||||
Year ended December 31, |
Three months ended December 31, |
|||||||
2019 |
2018 |
2019 |
2018 |
|||||
Unaudited |
Audited |
Unaudited |
||||||
Revenues |
$ 753 |
$ 1,747 |
$ 116 |
$ 635 |
||||
Cost of revenues |
334 |
1,452 |
81 |
627 |
||||
Gross profit |
419 |
295 |
35 |
8 |
||||
Operating expenses: |
||||||||
Research and development, net |
15,791 |
14,686 |
5,164 |
3,858 |
||||
Business development |
2,029 |
2,084 |
609 |
474 |
||||
General and administrative |
3,765 |
3,514 |
1,143 |
943 |
||||
Total operating expenses |
21,585 |
20,284 |
6,916 |
5,275 |
||||
Operating loss |
(21,166) |
(19,989) |
(6,881) |
(5,267) |
||||
Financing income |
2,461 |
1,413 |
269 |
217 |
||||
Financing expenses |
(386) |
(2,206) |
(56) |
(783) |
||||
Financing income (expenses), net |
2,075 |
(793) |
213 |
(566) |
||||
Loss before taxes on income |
(19,091) |
(20,782) |
(6,668) |
(5,833) |
||||
Taxes on income (tax benefit) |
24 |
30 |
24 |
(4) |
||||
Loss |
$ (19,115) |
$ (20,812) |
$ (6,692) |
$ (5,829) |
||||
Attributable to: |
||||||||
Equity holders of the Company |
(18,112) |
(20,758) |
(6,078) |
(5,801) |
||||
Non-controlling interests |
(1,003) |
(54) |
(614) |
(28) |
||||
$ (19,115) |
$ (20,812) |
$ (6,692) |
$ (5,829) |
|||||
Basic and diluted loss per share, |
$ (0.70) |
$ (0.81) |
$ (0.24) |
$ (0.23) |
||||
Weighted average number of shares |
25,754,297 |
25,753,411 |
25,754,297 |
25,754,297 |
||||
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS |
||||||||
U.S. dollars in thousands |
||||||||
Year ended |
Three months ended |
|||||||
2019 |
2018 |
2019 |
2018 |
|||||
Unaudited |
Audited |
Unaudited |
||||||
Cash flows from operating activities |
||||||||
Loss |
$ (19,115) |
$ (20,812) |
$ (6,692) |
$ (5,829) |
||||
Adjustments to reconcile loss to net cash used in |
||||||||
Adjustments to the profit or loss items: |
||||||||
Depreciation |
2,395 |
2,020 |
489 |
513 |
||||
Amortization of Intangible assets |
374 |
– |
180 |
– |
||||
Share-based compensation |
1,578 |
1,731 |
776 |
360 |
||||
Net financing expenses (income) |
(2,414) |
694 |
232 |
544 |
||||
Loss from sale of property, plant & equipment |
12 |
– |
– |
– |
||||
Taxes on income (tax benefit) |
24 |
30 |
24 |
(4) |
||||
1,969 |
4,475 |
1,701 |
1,413 |
|||||
Changes in asset and liability items: |
||||||||
Decrease (increase) in trade receivables |
88 |
(28) |
75 |
76 |
||||
Decrease (increase) in other receivables |
(1,250) |
95 |
(650) |
716 |
||||
Decrease (increase) in long-term deposits |
(10) |
– |
(10) |
2 |
||||
Increase (decrease) in trade payables |
(122) |
(114) |
68 |
303 |
||||
Decrease in severance pay liability, net |
(23) |
– |
(20) |
– |
||||
Increase (decrease) in employees and payroll accruals |
(10) |
(132) |
237 |
172 |
||||
Increase in other payables |
375 |
183 |
378 |
173 |
||||
Increase (decrease) in deferred revenues and other |
(45) |
(165) |
268 |
(194) |
||||
(997) |
(161) |
346 |
1,248 |
|||||
Cash received (paid) during the period for: |
||||||||
Interest received |
803 |
1,360 |
111 |
221 |
||||
Taxes paid, net |
(24) |
(23) |
(24) |
– |
||||
Net cash used in operating activities |
(17,364) |
(15,161) |
(4,558) |
(2,947) |
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS |
||||||||
U.S. dollars in thousands |
||||||||
Year ended |
Three months ended |
|||||||
2019 |
2018 |
2019 |
2018 |
|||||
Unaudited |
Audited |
Unaudited |
||||||
Cash flows from investing activities |
||||||||
Purchase of property, plant and equipment |
$ (900) |
$ (374) |
$ (382) |
$ (118) |
||||
Proceeds from sale of marketable securities |
27,084 |
63,639 |
4,257 |
30,205 |
||||
Purchase of marketable securities |
(1,637) |
(31,700) |
– |
(17,299) |
||||
Proceeds from (investment in) bank deposits, net |
12,592 |
(14,212) |
19,267 |
(10,092) |
||||
Net cash provided by investing activities |
37,139 |
17,353 |
23,142 |
2,696 |
||||
Cash flows from financing activities |
||||||||
Proceeds from exercise of options |
– |
9 |
– |
– |
||||
Proceeds from government grants |
493 |
354 |
87 |
133 |
||||
Issuance of subsidiary ordinary shares |
10,000 |
– |
– |
– |
||||
Repayment of operating lease liability |
(899) |
– |
(165) |
– |
||||
Repayment of government grants |
(590) |
(66) |
(4) |
(1) |
||||
Net cash provided by (used in) financing activities |
9,004 |
297 |
(82) |
132 |
||||
Exchange rate differences – cash and cash equivalent balances |
159 |
(114) |
(221) |
219 |
||||
Increase in cash and cash equivalents |
28,938 |
2,375 |
18,281 |
100 |
||||
Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of the period |
5,810 |
3,435 |
16,467 |
5,710 |
||||
Cash and cash equivalents, end of the period |
$ 34,748 |
$ 5,810 |
$ 34,748 |
$ 5,810 |
||||
Significant non-cash activities |
||||||||
Acquisition of property, plant and equipment |
$ 216 |
$ 80 |
$ 216 |
$ 80 |
||||
Increase of operating lease right-of-use-assets |
$ 3,437 |
– |
$ 88 |
– |
||||
Acquisition of intangible assets |
$ 17,448 |
– |
– |
– |
||||
Evogene Investor Contact: |
US Investor Relations: |
Rivka Neufeld Investor Relations and Public Relations Manager T: +972-8-931-1940 |
Joseph Green Edison Group T: +1 646-653-7030
|
Laine Yonker Edison Group T: +1 646-653-7035 |
View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/evogene-reports-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2019-financial-results-301016203.html
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