Calyxt reports financial results for fourth quarter and full-year 2017

Date:03-14-2018

• As of March 13th, successfully contracted over 11,500 high-oleic / no trans-fat soybean acres with over 60 growers.
• Partnership with Farmer’s Business Network, Inc. (FBN) to expand distribution and grower base of identity-preserved high oleic soybeans in the upper Midwest; Launched FBN seed distribution and 2018 High Oleic Premium Grower Program
• Around a dozen small to large food company customers engaged across food services and food ingredient applications
• Advanced two product candidates from ‘discovery’ to ‘phase 1’ development
• New concept-to-fork facility in Roseville, Minn., on track for completion in Spring 2018

Calyxt, Inc., a consumer-centric, food- and agriculture-focused company, today announced its results for the three-month period ended December 31, 2017 and for the year ended December 31, 2017.

“At Calyxt, we are pioneering a business model as a specialty food ingredient company, based on our proprietary, industry-leading gene editing technology platform, called TALEN®. We have made tremendous progress in the commercial preparation of our High Oleic Soybean product by contracting over 11,500 acres with over 60 farmers as of March 13th. This is just our first product and we are thrilled by the pace of development and possibilities that gene editing brings to the agricultural space as a whole.” Federico Tripodi, CEO Calyxt.

Corporate highlights

Planting Update – On Track for the Commercialization of High Oleic Soybeans

As of March 13th, Calyxt has contracted over 11,500 acres with 60 farmers in the Upper Midwest. Overall, these growers collectively farm over 125,000 acres, half of which are expected to produce soybeans. More than a quarter of the soybeans that are anticipated to be planted by these farmers consist of Calyxt’s high-oleic variety.

Calyxt’s recent partnership with Farmer’s Business Network, Inc. (FBN) added to the distribution and grower base of Calyxt’s identity-preserved high-oleic soybeans across the upper Midwest region, including South Dakota and Minnesota.

In December 2017, Calyxt launched the seed distribution and 2018 High Oleic Premium Grower Program with the Farmer Business Network. With access to a growing network of progressive farmers covering the entire U.S., we are building out our grower program with FBN.

On the food customer side, around 12 small to large food company customers are currently engaged across food services and food ingredient applications to test Calyxt’s high oleic soybean oil.

Alfalfa Product Candidate Designated as Non-Regulated by USDA and two product candidates advanced from ‘discovery’ to ‘phase 1’ development

In October, Calyxt and S&W Seeds announced that Calyxt’s first alfalfa product candidate has been designated by the USDA as a non-regulated article under the USDA APHIS’s “Am I Regulated?” Process.

This improved quality alfalfa developed using Calyxt’s proprietary gene editing technology TALEN® is Calyxt sixth product candidate to be confirmed as a non-regulated article by the USDA together with Calyxt’s high oleic soybean, high oleic / low linolenic soybean, powdery mildew resistant wheat, cold storable potato and reduced browning potato.

Calyxt now has nine product candidates in Phase 1 development or higher across soybean, wheat, canola, potato and alfalfa crops. The two products most recently entering Phase 1 are herbicide-tolerant wheat, our third wheat product candidate, and improved oil composition canola, our first canola product candidate, which entered Phase 1 during the third quarter of 2017. We believe that canola and wheat represent major growth opportunities for Calyxt.

New concept-to-fork facility in Roseville, Minn., on track for completion in Spring 2018

Calyxt’s new 11-acre concept-to-fork facility will house Calyxt’s nearly 40,000-square-foot headquarters, state-of-the-art research labs and a test kitchen. The new facility is being constructed adjacent to Calyxt’s recently completed 11,000+square-foot greenhouses and existing outdoor demonstration plots.

Financial Highlights

Cash and cash equivalents were $56.7 million at December 31, 2017. The highlight of 2017 was the successful initial public offering (IPO) in July, which provided $58 million of net proceeds after underwriter discounts and fees. Cellectis remains our majority shareholder with 79.7% of our common stock as of December 31, 2017. In September 2017, we completed a sale-leaseback transaction with respect to our Roseville, Minnesota headquarters and lab facilities, in which we received approximately $7 million for the sale of the property and entered into a lease agreement with an initial twenty-year term. We intend to continue to judiciously manage the use of cash and expect to have sufficient cash to fund the business through the mid-2019.

For the fourth quarter and full year of 2017, we had a net loss of $6.8 million and $26.0 million respectively. The net loss includes non-cash stock option expense related to grants from 2014 to 2017 for the fourth quarter and full year of $2.1 million and $12.1 million respectively. Our operating cash spend for the 12 months ending December 31, 2017 was $12.8 million or approximately $1.1 million per month.

Looking forward towards 2018, we anticipate that our operating cash spend will increase as we continue to expand our R&D team to advance key products in the portfolio and build out or commercial capabilities. For the first quarter of 2018, we project a cash burn rate in the range of $6.0 to $7.0 million. This increased cash spend reflects spending in the first half of 2018 on high oleic soybean seed production to support our Spring product launch, a continued expansion of our R&D team to advance key products in the portfolio and the build-out of our commercial capabilities.