Yield10 Bioscience announces fourth quarter and full year 2023 financial results

Date:04-03-2024

Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq:YTEN) ("Yield10" or the "Company"), an agricultural bioscience company, reported financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2023. 

"In 2023 we successfully executed our plan and achieved several key milestones that position Yield10 to build a sustainable products business based on engineered Camelina," said Oliver Peoples, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Yield10. "Our crop innovations are intended to support grower adoption of the crop and enable commercial-scale planting to produce Camelina oil and meal products targeting significant market opportunities. "We believe Camelina represents a game changer for producing omega-3 oil and meal products.

In early 2024, we made the strategic decision to focus our resources on the commercialization of Camelina products targeting the aquafeed and nutritional markets for omega-3 fatty acids. In the year ahead, we plan to focus on executing our development program for omega-3 Camelina, building seed inventory in anticipation of commercial scale planting, obtaining regulatory approval to sell omega-3 oil for aquafeed in Chile, and engaging with potential commercial partners to enable future commercial sale of omega-3 oil and meal in target markets. If all goes according to plan, we estimate that our omega-3 products could begin producing revenue as early as 2025. 

″We also recently achieved significant regulatory milestones supporting our commercial plans. USDA-APHIS completed review of our herbicide tolerance (″HT″) and omega-3 traits enabling us to plan for the commercial ramp-up of engineered Camelina varieties containing these traits in the U.S. We believe herbicide tolerance will be a significant factor in driving the adoption of Camelina. Our team is creating a portfolio of Camelina varieties incorporating these traits and others to improve the performance and value of the crop. 

"In early 2024, Yield10 granted to Vision Bioenergy Oilseeds (″VISION″) a global license to certain proprietary varieties of Camelina for the production of feedstock oil for biofuels. This agreement is intended to empower farmers to capitalize on the growing biofuel market while advancing the decarbonization goals of aviation, maritime, and heavy-duty transport industries. Yield10 plans to work with biofuel players to support the production of Camelina feedstock oil. 

″In 2023 we demonstrated closed-loop production of Camelina as we supplied our seed to growers under contract and arranged the offtake and sale of the grain to a biofuel refiner. We intend to continue to build relationships across the value chain to support increasing scale of Camelina production and sale of oil and meal into target markets. 

"In the coming months, we expect to execute on our commercial and regulatory plan to produce omega-3 oil and meal products in Camelina, to combine our HT and omega-3 traits to produce new Camelina varieties, and to continue to support grower adoption of Camelina," said Dr. Peoples. 

Recent Accomplishments 

Recent progress by Yield10 is underscored by the key milestones achieved during 2023 and is setting the direction for the Company’s business strategy in 2024, including: 

• Yield10 planted omega-3 (EPA) Camelina at the 50 acre-scale in Chile to produce oil for use in business development activities. The crop was harvested in early 2024. 

• In March of 2024, USDA-APHIS provided a positive response to the Company's announced filings for two requests for a Regulatory Status Review (RSR) with USDA-APHIS's Biotechnology Regulatory Services (BRS) under the SECURE Rule for proprietary elite Camelina varieties containing genes enabling the plant to produce the EPA and EPA+DHA components of omega-3 oil. Yield10 plans to conduct seed scale-up activities with omega-3 Camelina in 2024. Omega-3 fatty acids are used in aquafeed as well as for nutraceutical and pharmaceutical products. 

• In November of 2023, USDA-APHIS determined that Yield10’s glufosinate tolerant Camelina as well as its stacked herbicide tolerant Camelina may be planted and bred in the United States in response to two Requests for Regulatory Status Review (″RSRs″) packages submitted by Yield10. An application to add Camelina to a glufosinate label is pending with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 

• In early 2024, Yield10 granted to Vision Bioenergy Oilseeds a global license to certain proprietary varieties of Camelina for the production of feedstock oil for biofuels. Commercial production of Camelina is currently ramping up in North America as a source of ultra-low carbon feedstock oil for the biofuel industry. In consideration for the license and completion of certain deliverables, Vision will make cash payments to Yield10 totaling $3 million. 

• We recently reported encouraging results from the first field testing of our winter HT and Stacked HT Camelina varieties. We expect to harvest the winter field test plantings later this year and conduct an evaluation of seed yield, oil content, herbicide tolerance and overall agronomy. 

• In early 2024, the Plant Biosafety Office (″PBO″) of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (″CFIA″) reviewed information on the Company’s E3902 Camelina sativa (″Camelina″) and determined that E3902 is not a Plant with Novel Trait (PNT) and is not subject to a premarket notification under Part V of the Seeds Regulations. Yield10’s E3902 Camelina combines genome edits in three proprietary genetic traits, C3008a, C3008b and C3009, that result in an increase in oil production by five percent. 

• In 2023, Yield10 successfully demonstrated the supply chain from seed to growers contracts to oil and meal offtake to customers. In the fall of 2023, Yield10 signed growers contracts representing approximately 1,200 acres of winter Camelina production which is expected to be harvested in the third quarter of 2024. 

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Recent progress by Yield10 is underscored by the key milestones achieved during 2023 and is setting the direction for the Company’s business strategy in 2024, including: ‍

FULL YEAR AND FOURTH QUARTER 2023 FINANCIAL OVERVIEW ‍

Cash Position ‍

Yield10 is managed with an emphasis on cash flow and deploys its financial resources in a disciplined manner to achieve its key strategic objectives. 

Yield10 used $10.1 million in cash for its operating activities during the year ended December 31, 2023 in comparison to $11.4 million used for operating activities during the year ended December 31, 2022. The Company ended 2023 with $1.1 million in unrestricted cash and investments in comparison to a balance of $4.3 in unrestricted cash, cash equivalents and shortterm investments as of December 31, 2022. The decrease in cash usage for operating activities during the year ended December 31, 2023, in comparison to the previous year, was the result of our decision to delay payments to vendors and conserve cash as we continued our Camelina biofuels and omega-3 business development activities. In February of 2024, we granted a commercial license to VISION Bioenergy Oilseeds, LLC, for certain proprietary varieties of Camelina for the production of feedstock oil for biofuels. Cash proceeds from the arrangement total $3.0 million. In March of 2024, we raised $1.2 million, net in a warrant inducement transaction. ‍

Operating Results ‍

Research grant revenue for the year ended December 31, 2023 was $0.1 million in comparison to grant revenue of $0.5 million recorded in the previous year. Early in 2023, our work in support of a five-year DOE sub-award through Michigan State University was completed with no further grant revenue to be recognized. Research and development expense was $8.3 million during the year ended December 31, 2023, an increase of $0.5 million, in comparison to $7.8 million recorded during the year ended December 31, 2022. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to the increased cost of crop trials and commercial seed production, partially offset by lower employee compensation and benefits expenses as we implemented cost cutting measures during the year. General and administrative expenses were consistent at $6.2 million during the years ended December 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022. 

Yield10 reported a net loss of $14.5 million, or $1.82 per share for the full year 2023, as compared to a net loss of $13.6 million, or $2.76 per share in 2022. During the fourth quarter of 2023, research and development expense increased by $0.1 million from $1.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2022 to $2.0 million. General and administrative expenses decreased by $0.1 million to $1.3 million during the fourth quarter of 2023, from $1.4 million during the fourth quarter of 2022. Yield10 reported a loss after taxes of $3.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2023, or $0.27 per share, compared to a similar loss after taxes of $3.3 million, or $0.67 per share, in the fourth quarter of 2022.