Amyris, Inc.

OTCPK:AMRS.Q 株式レポート

時価総額:US$744.6k

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分析記事 Apr 12

What Does Amyris, Inc.'s (NASDAQ:AMRS) Share Price Indicate?

Amyris, Inc. ( NASDAQ:AMRS ), might not be a large cap stock, but it received a lot of attention from a substantial...
分析記事 Mar 22

Does This Valuation Of Amyris, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRS) Imply Investors Are Overpaying?

Key Insights The projected fair value for Amyris is US$1.05 based on 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity Amyris is...
分析記事 Oct 31

At US$2.95, Is Amyris, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRS) Worth Looking At Closely?

While Amyris, Inc. ( NASDAQ:AMRS ) might not be the most widely known stock at the moment, it led the NASDAQGS gainers...
Seeking Alpha Oct 07

Amyris Cost Breakdown

Summary Supply chain issues have massively inflated Amyris’ costs, but many of these issues are resolving themselves. Barra Bonita is an important step towards profitability, but its significance is being vastly overestimated. Insourcing production will help Amyris to control costs, and move the business closer to profitability over the next 12 months. Amyris’ (AMRS) business model appears to be poorly understood, leading many investors to expect an inevitable bankruptcy. Amyris has a serious liquidity issue and will likely need access to hundreds of millions of dollars of financing over the next 12 months. If they can get over this hump, the business has a clear path to profitability and a long growth runway ahead of it. John Melo recently pointed towards Amyris achieving adjusted EBITDA profitability in 2023 and positive free cash flows in 2024. A more sanguine perspective puts operating profitability in 2024 (depending on molecule licensing deals) and positive free cash flow in 2025/2026 (contingent on CapEx). Depending on revenue growth and supply chain issues going forward, Amyris may still need up to 800 million USD in cash over the next three years to reach cash flow breakeven. Amyris has avenues to raise this capital without diluting existing shareholders, but the likelihood and timing of licensing deals is crucial. Without these, forced asset sales or a highly dilutionary equity raise are likely. Table 1: Amyris Potential Sources of Cash (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Gross Profit Margins Much of the doubt surrounding Amyris’ business model stems from their inability to generate meaningful gross profits from product sales. To a large extent, this is a reflection of their past focus on marginal businesses (biofuels and commodity chemicals), but it is also due to their inability to achieve sufficient scale. Figure 1: Estimated Amyris Product Gross Profit Margins (source: Crated by author using data from Amyris) Over the past decade Amyris has shifted from producing bulk commodities (biofuels) to specialty molecules (squalane) and now consumer brands. Amyris’ revenue now comes from businesses with inherently better economics, and over the past three years this has been accompanied by strong growth. Table 2: Price per kg of Amyris Products (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) As revenue from consumer brands grow in relative importance, Amyris’ margins are improving, but this is being hidden by a relative decline in high margin collaboration and licensing revenue and elevated expenses due to supply chain issues. With supply chain issues beginning to resolve, the start-up of Barra Bonita, the co-location of downstream processing and the insourcing of consumer manufacturing, Amyris will likely begin to achieve its target gross margins for each segment over the next 12 months. Figure 2: Amyris Revenue by Segment (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Table 3: Amyris Target Gross Profit Margins by Segment (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Amyris’ target ingredient gross profit margins probably need to be taken with a grain of salt, as Amyris continues to use ingredient licensing deals to finance their consumer business, and management has stated that after one of these deals, ingredient gross margins are closer to 10-20%. This is not that material to the company though, as ingredient revenue will soon be less than 20% of total revenue and Amyris may choose to stop doing licensing deals once the business is self-sustaining. Depending on the revenue mix that is ultimately achieved, Amyris should end up with gross profit margins of around 55%. As the business has scaled and the consumer segment grown in relative importance, Amyris has been moving towards this point. The past year has seen a rapid deterioration in margins though, as a combination of issues have undermined profitability. Figure 3: Amyris Gross Profit Margins (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Gross margins should begin to improve significantly going forward as supply chain issues abate and Amyris insources production. For example, John Melo recently pointed to a 50% reduction in COGS for Biossance, presumably only referring to the cost of ingredients, production and packaging rather than all COGS. This should still result in something like a 7.5% gross profit margin improvement for their largest source of revenue. Price increases are also expected to deliver a 10 million USD improvement in the second half of 2022 (5% improvement to gross margins) and over 30 million USD in 2023 (5% improvement to gross margins). The improvement in gross profit margins and the increase in revenue over the next 12 months could increase gross profits by over 250 million USD compared to the past 12 months. This is likely to be due to a relatively even split between an improvement in margins and an increase in revenue. This improvement alone would go a long way towards eliminating Amyris 450+ million USD operating profit loss over the past year. Operating Expenses In addition to poor gross profit margins, Amyris has faced elevated operating expenses over the past 12 months, due in part to supply chain issues, but primarily from the fact that they are investing aggressively in future growth. Operating expenses are currently 100 million USD a quarter above trend levels, and while Amyris has plans to reduce operating expenses, most of the improvements in operating margins will need to come from revenue growth. Figure 4: Amyris Operating Expenses (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Cost Drivers Supply chain issues have weighed heavily on Amyris over the past year. In the first quarter of 2022, management attributed 20 million USD to global supply chain issues (higher manufacturing costs, inflated freight costs and air freight to deal with delays). Based on a bottom-up calculation, I estimate that additional expenses related to supply chain issues totaled approximately 25 million USD in the second quarter of 2022. This amounts to 46% of product revenue, compared to management’s estimate of supply chain costs totaling 44% of revenue in the first quarter of 2022. Additional expenses can be broken into COGS and operating expenses to show that marketing and increased headcount are currently Amyris' biggest problems. Table 4: Amyris Estimated Additional COGS (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Table 5: Amyris Estimated Additional Operating Expenses (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Path to Profitability Amyris has also detailed a fit-to-win plan that they believe will help to significantly improve profitability over the next 12 months. While this is a positive, it should also be recognized that this plan is being implemented in response to problems with the business. The fit-to-win plan in expected to result in a 24.5 million USD improvement in operating profitability per quarter in the second half of 2022. Table 6: Projected Cost Savings from Amyris' Fit-to-Win Initiative (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) The combination of the fit-to-win initiative and a normalization of Amyris’ supply chain could result in quarterly cost savings of approximately 50 million USD. This is likely an upper estimate though as there is probably overlap in some areas between expected fit-to-win improvements and supply chain related expenses. Given the majority of the savings from fit-to-win are not supply chain related (price increases and reduced marketing spend) there should be at least a 40 million USD total improvement. Operating leverage could also improve operating profits by approximately another 35 million USD a quarter through next year, depending on how quickly revenue continues to grow. Ingredient Business Economics Despite being almost a decade old, Amyris’ ingredients business has likely never been consistently profitable, even on a gross profit basis. Over the last 12 months, supply chain issues have exacerbated the problems of the ingredients business, causing large losses. The start-up of Barra Bonita, and a normalization of supply chains, will dramatically change the economics of the ingredients business over the next 12 months, aiding Amyris’ transition to profitability. Figure 5: Estimated Amyris Ingredient Gross Profit Margins (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Fermentation Amyris continues to be viewed primarily as a synthetic biology company, and hence the focus of investors is on their ability to profitably ferment molecules at scale. While strain engineering and fermentation at scale are at the heart of Amyris’ business, fermentation is likely only currently contributing a single digit percentage to total costs, and hence is only a small component of Amyris’ path to profitability. Amyris’ business model has evolved over time from the production of bulk commodities, to specialty ingredients and now consumer brands. This has meant that the amount of revenue they are able to generate per kilogram of fermented product has increased over time. This should generally make it easier to generate profits, although specialty molecules and consumer brands do incur additional costs. Figure 6: Amyris Revenue per kg of Fermented Product (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Figure 7: Dependence of Manufacturing Cost on Fermenter Yield (source: Created by author) Table 7: Typical Fermentation Cost Breakdown for Specialty Molecules and Bulk Products (source: Created by author) Brotas Amyris’ first attempt at insourcing production was at their Brotas facility, which was opened in 2012 and eventually sold to DSM in 2017. Brotas was designed as a high-volume plant for the production of farnesene. When Amyris pivoted away from biofuels toward specialty molecules they were left constantly trying to switch production at Brotas, which was inefficient. Brotas was estimated to have a theoretical maximum production capacity of approximately 40 million liters per year, but doesn’t appear to have ever achieved production anywhere near this. In the past, Amyris pointed towards the Brotas facility being underutilized by 20-30% due to the switching of products, which took an average of approximately 10 days. They were planning to reduce this to 6-8 days, although it is unclear whether they actually ended up achieving this goal. When Brotas was only producing farnesene, utilization was approximately 80-90%. At the time the Brotas facility was sold it was producing Farnesene for nine months of the year, with the remaining three months used to produce two additional products and ADL Bionatur used for the remaining products. DSM acquired the Brotas facility and intellectual property related to farnesene for 58 million USD, in addition to a value share arrangement over a three year period totaling 37.5 million USD. DSM was to continue existing supply-agreements to Amyris and other parties, as well as supply Amyris with specialty compounds until their specialties production facility was operational. Barra Bonita The focus on a range of specialty molecules led to the Barra Bonita plant, which is designed for the concurrent production of multiple ingredients. Barra Bonita has six 200,000 litre fermenters spread across five production lines. The Barra Bonita facility is majority owned by Amyris, with Ingredion having a 30% stake. The Barra Bonita plant is expected to significantly lower COGS for the ingredients business, with production and shipping costs projected to fall by 10 million USD in the second half of 2022 (5% improvement in gross margins) and 30 million USD in 2023 (5% improvement in gross margins). Management specifically mentioned a two thirds cost reduction from CMOs for farnesene on the Q2 2022 earnings call, indicating how large an impact Barra Bonita will eventually have, although this won’t be the same for all molecules. It is not clear how much of this improvement is from reducing costs (inputs, CMO margins etc.) versus improved productivity. Third-party fermentation capacity is not as efficient and has a significantly greater risk of contamination. Barra Bonita is a state-of-the-art facility that is designed to maximize efficiency, capture the value of waste streams and reduce labor requirements through automation. Barra Bonita will also help to de-bottleneck production and allow Amyris to meet customer demand, which outstripped their ability to supply by approximately 15 million USD in the first half of 2022. The immediate impact of this may not be as positive as many assume though as there are significant overheads associated with operating this type of facility. Until the facility is operating at capacity, production costs will be elevated relative to long-run expectations. CMOs Amyris has historically relied on a range of CMOs for both consumer product manufacturing and fermentation. This can be a successful strategy, and is the only viable option until a company reaches the minimum viable scale to begin insourcing, but it can be problematic when CMO facilities are sub-standard, product margins are narrow or excessive demand causes high CMO pricing. Amyris has given little insight into the burden of utilizing CMOs, but has hinted at it in a number of ways. In the second quarter of 2019 management stated that they expected a 30% unit cost improvement in five of their products as a result of renegotiating contracts with their largest CMO. Amyris also expects that the shift to Barra Bonita will reduce costs by 50-67% for many molecules. While much of this is likely to be the result of lower input costs and improved facility productivity, a large portion is also likely to come from the elimination of CMO margins. One of Amyris’ main fermentation CMOs in recent years has been ADL Bionatur. ADL Bionatur is a CMO of non-Pharma grade molecules in Spain, primarily focusing on ingredients for the food, personal care and pharma industries. ADL’s facility has a fermentation production capacity of 2.4 million litres, including 8 x 225,000 litre fermenters. Amyris has also made significant investments in downstream processing equipment at the facility. Figure 8: ADL Bionatur Facilities (source: ADL Bionatur) ADL Bionatur’s facility had an 80% capacity utilization rate in 2021 with some of the main clients including: Fermentalg DSM Evolva Amyris Jennewein Some of the products manufactured at the facility include: Beta-carotene Flucosyl-lactose Patchouli Farnesene Omega 3 Probiotics Patchouli and farnesene are likely produced for Amyris, and this is confirmed by freight data. Amyris first entered into an agreement with Antibióticos (ADL Bionatur) for the production of Biofene at its facilities in Leon Spain in 2011. Amyris stopped utilizing ADL Bionatur when their Brotas facility opened, but returned in the first half of 2017 as a result of capacity constraints at Brotas. At the time, the plan was to use ADL Bionatur to introduce new products and allow the Brotas facility to focus on the large cash generators. While this was likely never a particularly attractive option from an economic standpoint, given the cost of energy, feedstock and labor in Europe, it has become disastrous in the past 12 months due to the spike in European energy prices. Amyris renewed their contract with ADL in 2019, with the plan of producing up to five ingredients and contract revenues amounting to at least 12 million Euro. ADL Bionatur is a public company and hence financial data is available, although margins are not broken out by segment. Fermentation contract manufacturing is their main source of revenue and gross margins are over 50%. The company is targeting EBITDA margins of 30% by 2024. While the exact margins on contract manufacturing is unknown, it is clearly quite high, making it difficult for customers to profitably manufacture low-margin products. Table 8: ADL Bionatur Financial Performance (source: Created by author using data from ADL Bionatur) Over the years, Amyris has utilized a range of other CMOs, including Biomin and Tate & Lyle. Amyris entered into an agreement with Biomin in 2010 to utilize their facility in Piracicaba, Brazil. Amyris expected to begin production of farnesene at the Biomin facility in the first half of 2011. Details of the facility are unknown, but at the time it was stated that all of the contract manufacturing facilities Amyris was involved in utilized fermenters having production output ranging between 100,000 and 600,000 liters. In August 2018 this facility was acquired by the Canadian company Lallemand. Amyris utilized a Tate & Lyle fermentation facility in Illinois to produce farnesene, prior to the start-up of their Brotas facility. Amyris stopped using this facility in the first half of 2013, after the Brotas facility began to scale-up production successfully. This facility had previously been impaired by Tate & Lyle, and when commercial viability was established by Amyris, Tate & Lyle reversed the previous 7 million pound write-down. Genomatica has utilized the same facility to produce Bio-BDO. In addition to lower efficiency and higher costs, Amyris has had to invest in CMO facilities and sometimes been subjected to unfavourable contracts. During 2011 and 2012 Amyris reimbursed CMOs 13.8 million USD for facility modifications. Some CMOs have at times imposed manufacturing agreements with fixed purchase commitments, regardless of production volumes, making manufacturing expensive if operating below the committed amount. Vertical Integration While the decision to insource fermentation has the potential to significantly reduce expenses, it can only be done once a company has reached a minimum viable scale, as vertical integration lowers variable costs in exchange for higher fixed costs. Figure 9: Potential Impact of Vertical Integration on Production Costs (source: Created by author) The impact of leverage from vertical integration can be seen in Amyris’ historical product gross profit margins. Margins were far more dependent on scale when operating the Brotas facility, and it appears that Amyris never really achieved sufficient revenue to make this facility economical. With Barra Bonita focused on higher value molecules and Amyris having access to larger end markets, Barra Bonita is far more likely to be profitable. Figure 10: Amyris Product Gross Margins (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Amyris is currently in the process of scaling up production at Barra Bonita, and hence their production costs are likely to be elevated for the next 1-2 quarters. Amyris has also likely been incurring substantial costs related to the start-up of Barra Bonita, which will not have all been capitalized. For example, Amyris began recruiting and training employees for Barra Bonita in the first quarter of 2021. Amyris’ is also planning on adding four 600,000 litre tanks to Barra Bonita in 2023. CapEx for this is expected to be under 80 million USD as existing infrastructure at the facility will be utilized in a modular fashion. It is likely that these tanks will primarily be used for farnesene production to support squalane and hemi-squalane sales. It is not clear whether this is due to strong demand or the relative expense of utilizing CMO facilities. Farnesene Production Costs In the past Amyris has provided detailed information on farnesene production costs, with a record low cost of 1.75 USD per liter achieved in 2015. Amyris planned to introduce a new strain in 2016 which was expected to reduce costs by a further 10%. Amyris also stated in 2014 that they were targeting cash production costs of under 1.0 USD per liter in the next 2-3 years. No information is available on the cost trajectory of farnesene since 2015, but it seems likely that costs at Barra Bonita should be around or below 1.5 USD per liter.
Seeking Alpha Oct 01

Recurring Marketing Exclusivity Deals Accelerate Amyris On Path To Profitability

Summary Amyris' more frequent and larger "exclusivity" deals introduce a unique, recurring catalyst to its business model that enhances profitability and requires raising our earnings estimates. We're raising our EPS estimates from ($1.19) to ($0.22)/share for 2022, from ($0.36) to ($0.09)/share for 2023, from $0.08 to $0.35/share for 2024 and from $0.62 to $0.88/share for 2025. Amyris can become a foundry enabling and accelerating the expansion of the Bio-manufacturing Industrial Revolution engaging industry partners to penetrate many more verticals faster than Amyris could on its own. We believe this unique Marketing Exclusivity strategy creates winning partnerships enhancing the value of its molecules to maximize returns for both its market leading partners and for Amyris' bottom line. We estimate future exclusivity deals could provide upfront cash infusions averaging about $100 million (de-risking the balance sheet) plus earn-outs that boost ingredient gross margins by 20 percentage points. What Are Marketing Exclusivity Sales and Why Is Amyris Able to Sell Exclusive Marketing Rights for a Specific Use At Such a High Value vs. Selling Complete Ownership of the Molecule? In 2021, Amyris (AMRS) sold "marketing exclusivity" for its portfolio of 7 Flavor and Fragrance molecules to DSM for $500 million with $150 million upfront. Amyris also sold to Ingredion marketing exclusivity for its RebM sweetener and a minority share of a manufacturing JV for $100 million with $10 million upfront. These were not outright molecule sales like the sale of Vitamin A in 2017 and Vitamin E in 2019. They are instead the sale of exclusive marketing rights to a trusted partner that Amyris determines can better access the consumer end markets faster than Amyris could on its own. For example, CFO Han Kieftenbeld explained Amyris tried to get food and beverage companies to use Amyris' Reb M no calorie sweetener in their products but only had 2 sales reps vs. the 1500 reps Ingredion can use to approach Coke, Pepsi etc. It made sense to sell the exclusive marketing rights for RebM to Ingredion while maintaining the rights to use RebM in Amyris' own PureCane sweetener brand. In selling only the exclusive marketing rights, Amyris still retains the ownership of the IP and the manufacturing of the ingredients at a gross margin we estimate to be about 20-30% going forward at Barra Bonita with 2/3 lower costs than by using CMOs as explained in our August 8, 2022 Seeking Alpha "Amyris' Vertically-Integrated Business Model Transitioning From Investment Mode To Payoff Mode. There would also typically be royalty type earn-outs that Amyris would receive as the exclusivity partner reaches certain volume levels. We believe that earn-outs for an average exclusivity deal could add about 2000 basis points on a net basis to the 30% gross margins that Barra Bonita-produced molecules would have had without an exclusivity deal. This boosts that molecule's ingredient gross margin to close to 50% which is quite outstanding for the ingredients or specialty chemicals industries. The industry partner, in this case Ingredion, would have the right to be the exclusive buyer of the Amyris RebM off its production lines, allowing Ingredion to have total control over marketing and distribution of the Amyris RebM. In essence, Ingredion becomes the only marketer of the Amyris fermented and processed RebM to the thousands of food and beverage companies globally, including Pepsi or Coke. Being the only supplier can be enormously profitable if the product becomes in great demand as DSM has seen with vanillin in the last 12 months. We understand that vanillin volumes have gone through the roof which is one reason that Amyris is expecting higher earn-outs from DSM and improved cash flow in 2022. Why Did Amyris Start Selling Marketing Exclusivity for its Ingredients Only a Couple of Years Ago and Not In Prior Years? Early this year I asked CEO Melo why Amyris was able to negotiate deals to in effect sell marketing exclusivity and deliver its bio-produced molecules to one and only one industry partner at a premium price and receive such large payments. He said that a couple years ago they realized that some of its industry partners would prefer to become the sole purchaser of Amyris' Hero Ingredients and would pay a premium for this privilege. CEO Melo went on to explain that they realized these exclusivity deals could be made easier by no longer selling its ingredients to all customers under multi-year contracts. If approached by a single market leading industrial customer who would pay a premium to become the exclusive distributor or user, Amyris would not be encumbered by pre-existing long term supply agreements with its existing customers. Two years later, Amyris is now in a position to be able to sell exclusivity for more of its ingredients at a higher price, thank you. We are just now realizing that this is developing into a significant and increasingly more frequent profit-enhancing feature of the Amyris business model which we did not fully appreciate when we published our last Seeking Alpha article. It Starts With The Best Engineered Organisms, Precision Fermentation and Downstream Processing to Produce the Most Pure Molecules at the Lowest Cost The "Bio-manufacturing Industry" is new to many and has been evolving rapidly after a slow start 10-15 years ago due to the demise of biofuels from the last oil price collapse. (I prefer to use the term "bio-manufacturing" rather than "synthetic biology" which implies the products are synthetic. The term derives from the synthetic engineering of new strains of organisms that produce the molecules that are exactly identical with those found in nature. The molecules are not synthetic, the organisms that produce them are. The term "SynBio" also does little to reflect the importance of the other half of the manufacturing process, precision fermentation and downstream processing required for bio-manufacturing.) The ability to offer exclusivity at a materially higher price exists because Amyris is the only company in the industry able to design organisms and actually bio-manufacture through fermentation and downstream processing molecules reliably at scale -- and at superior purity and lower costs. Each molecule is uniquely produced in a process proprietary to Amyris. We will become more anxious if we see a competitor emerge that can produce the same molecule efficiently at scale, but we don't see any on the horizon. In fact, we believe that bio-manufacturing competitors will most likely avoid competing directly with Amyris which is now well known to have the lowest cost manufacturing and will likely chose to produce some of the other 10,000s of known molecules. Why Are We Just Learning Now About This Profit Enhancing Marketing Exclusivity Strategy? The industry is so new and changing so quickly that its participants are having to adjust strategies "on the fly" much like during the Digital Revolution. In the meantime, investors should be glad to know that Amyris is developing innovative business strategies along with its great science to maximize returns shareholders and partners. For us, the lightbulb moment was being shocked by management responses to questions on the 2022 Q2 conference call on August 9, 2022 about the progress of the ongoing H2 2022 $400 million two molecule exclusivity sale. CEO Melo responded "we've already been approached for another molecule in our portfolio that we expect to ... end up doing some time in 2023 ... we're by no means done ... We monetize the marketing rights because we can't market to everybody all the time." This clearly suggested more frequent molecule exclusivity sales in the future. As for justification, CEO Melo went on to clearly suggest that Amyris will continue to focus on Consumer end markets: "We need to focus our own direct capability on the Consumer and let our partners focus on the B2B sales." We believe that the rising level of interest in buying exclusivity on the part of its industry partners may have even caught Amyris by surprise. After all, the first exclusivity deal was only signed in March of last year with DSM and then with Ingredion in May of 2021. These first two "exclusivity sales" followed more traditional molecule asset sales in 2017, 2019 and 2020 where Amyris sold the ownership of the intellectual property (engineered yeast strains, enzymes, etc.) and rights to produce those molecules: Amyris company data and Tanaka Capital Management Estimates Note: All tables were prepared by my partner Benjamin Bratt, CFA Reasons Why We Expect Marketing Exclusivity Deals to Become More Common for Amyris, Likely to Happen Every Year and Should Therefore Be Incorporated in Earnings Models: We thought Amyris was fortunate to have interest in two exclusivity deals signed in 2021 at large premium prices ($500 million from DSM and $100 million from Ingredion). Then Amyris announced two large molecule exclusivity deals expected to close in 2022 for a total of "about $350 million upfront cash and around $400 million of total value" as mentioned on the Q2 2022 conference call on August 9, 2022. We understand that there is interest from multiple buyers, suggesting increasing industry awareness of the value of exclusive supply of a molecule from Amyris' fermentation lines. Surprise early interest in a molecule for 2023 mentioned in the August 9, 2022 conference call. We believe it could be for a cannabinoid CBD, CBG or for squalene which could be category-specific for cosmetic use or for use as a vaccine adjuvant as mentioned in our September 30, 2020 Seeking Alpha article "R&D Surprises Offer Amyris Unbounded Upside". Our November 19, 2021 Seeking Alpha piece "Amyris Buying Opportunity Created by Q3 Miss, Mega Convert and Potential Revolutionary COVID Vaccine" further discusses the use of the Amyris squalene adjuvant in the ImmunityBio/Amyris/AAHI 2nd Gen COVID vaccine human trials currently underway in South Africa and Botswana. The visible physical presence of a massive state-of-the-art 6-fermentation tank facility in June 2022 that is already brewing tons of vanillin per day as well as RebM and farnesene and will be producing 16-20 molecules by the end of the year is proof positive that Amyris can deliver volume for a new partner very quickly. Vanillin and Reb M exclusivity deals (DSM and Ingredion, respectively) are producing in volume and are apparently becoming great success stories for Amyris' two industry partners. We believe "success sells itself" and will inform other potential partners what new exclusivity deals could deliver to them. A large evergreen R&D pipeline of 25 molecules under development will deliver 5-6 new molecules every year to feed into the exclusivity candidate pool that Amyris can market to industry partners, old and new. We are assuming only one new exclusivity candidate per year the next few years which could be conservative. CEO Melo has pointed out to me it is important to realize that Amyris has added much more valuable molecule candidates to its R&D pipeline. We believe that this could result in more valuable molecules with larger upfront exclusivity fees and possibly better upside in earn-outs in future years. It appears that cycle times are shortening between the production of a new molecule, delivery of samples and negotiations to sign exclusivity deals to a few months from 1-2 years in the past. This suggests that prior successes seem to be advertising the value of the exclusivity model to new partners. Amyris knows it doesn't have the bandwidth to address each new vertical as the bio-manufacturing revolution proliferates broadly to more new industries. As fermentation becomes more accepted and recognized as a viable source of pure ingredients at a lower cost, Amyris could become the go-to provider or foundry for many new industry verticals as TSMC has done for the semiconductor industry. By collecting large upfront payments for selling exclusivity to individual partners, Amyris can re-liquify its balance sheet faster than many believe. In addition, by selling exclusivity at a premium price, we estimate Amyris might boost prices and margins by about 20% which all goes to the pretax bottom line for these ingredients. Importantly, these exclusivity price premiums should shorten Amyris' path to profitability as we believe that it will be able to sign exclusivity deals each year in the next few years and that analysts will have to include these earn-out premiums in their earnings models as we have done below. Below, my partner Ben Bratt is now incorporating Exclusivity Upfronts and annual earn-outs in our 2022-2025 Amyris earnings and cash flow model. Near term, adding $350 million of upfront revenues and pretax profits by year end makes Q4 2022 profitable at $0.85/share of GAAP profit. Assuming an additional $100 million per year of upfronts for one molecule marketing exclusivity deal per year for each of the next 3 years would add about $0.25/share to pretax EPS in 2023, 2024 and 2025. This would bring 2023 close to profitable at a loss of ($0.09/share) and make 2024 solidly profitable at $0.35/share of earnings increasing to $0.88/share in 2025. Closing the two molecule exclusivity sales announced for 2022 would make our 2022 full year cash flow estimate a positive $0.08/share of Adjusted EBITDA. We estimate one exclusivity sale per year with $100 million upfront would help generate estimated positive EBITDA of $0.18/share in 2023, $0.64/share in 2024 and $1.17/share in 2025: Amyris Earnings Estimates Model Including Strategic Upfront Revenues to 2025 (Amyris company data and Tanaka Capital Management Estimates)
分析記事 Sep 02

Are Investors Undervaluing Amyris, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRS) By 43%?

How far off is Amyris, Inc. ( NASDAQ:AMRS ) from its intrinsic value? Using the most recent financial data, we'll take...
Seeking Alpha Aug 22

Amyris: In Dire Need For Additional Capital

Amyris reports another set of disappointing quarterly results, with both revenue and earnings missing consensus expectations by a mile. While core consumer revenues continue to rise, growth rates will have to pick up substantially in the second half to avoid another top line miss. Amyris used almost $190 million in cash during the quarter. At the current burn rate, the company would run out of funds by the end of this month. Management expects to secure $700 million in non-dilutive financing over the next couple of quarters. I reiterate my grave concerns regarding management's ability to execute on its stated targets, but do not expect the company's elevated liquidity requirements to result in a near-term bankruptcy as Amyris still has a number of levers to pull. Note: I have covered Amyris previously, so investors should view this as an update to my earlier articles on the company. Earlier this month, specialty renewable products developer Amyris, Inc. (AMRS) reported another set of weak quarterly results. The company missed consensus expectations by a mile while SG&A expenses continued to balloon. Company SEC-Filings Revenues in the core consumer business surged 108% year-over-year, but this was actually materially below the company's full-year projection of "well over 150%" growth. As a result, sales momentum will have to pick up substantially in H2 to avoid another top line disappointment. Even worse, Amyris used a whopping $189.0 million in cash in Q2. At the current burn rate, Amyris would run out of funds by the end of this month despite generating $670 million in net proceeds from a convertible debt offering just nine months ago. As a result, the company needs to raise additional capital as soon as possible. On the conference call, CEO John Melo pointed to "term sheets for up to $250 million of term loan financing" which he expects to close before the end of this quarter. In addition, the company expects to receive $350 million in cash until the end of this year from further marketing rights sales. Lastly, Amyris is working on bringing $150 million in earn-out payments forward. Melo also asserted that the company has "complete access" to key shareholder financing, if necessary. According to CFO Han Kieftenbeld, the company has visibility on $700 million in new funds: Finally, regarding capital funding. As John mentioned, we have visibility on $700 million, of which we expect to secure $200 million in non-equity financing in Q3, $350 million from a strategic transaction expected by end of Q4 and the remainder from earn-out no later than the early part of 2023. Company Presentation As a result, year-end cash is expected to be between $300 million and $400 million. The company also revealed a new "Fit to Win" initiative which is expected to result in $50 million of Adjusted EBITDA improvement in H2 and $175 million of full year Adjusted EBITDA improvements next year. Company Presentation As usual, given management's very long history of over-promising and under-delivering, investors would be well-served to take these projections with a huge grain of salt. For my part, I am particularly concerned about potentially onerous term loan conditions as the company has violated debt covenants a number of times in the past already. Quite frankly, I wouldn't be surprised to see the interest rate approaching or even exceeding double digits and the facility being governed by certain EBITDA-related covenants. Investors should also prepare for a material minimum liquidity requirement. Assuming $650 million in total funds being raised in H2 and Amyris finishing the year with $350 million in cash, cash usage for the second half of the year would calculate to approximately $400 million, roughly in line with H1 and likely considerably higher than expected by market participants at this point. While renewed risk appetite among investors resulted in shares rallying to their highest levels since the ugly Q1 report, Roth Capital analyst Craig Irwin actually downgraded Amyris from "Buy" to "Neutral" with a price target of $2 based on repetitive revenue disappointments and balance sheet concerns. In addition, Irwin pointed to potentially overly optimistic valuation expectations for the proposed marketing rights sale. Bottom Line At least in my opinion, it takes a lot of faith in management's projections and ability to secure large amounts of additional capital at favorable terms to justify an investment in Amyris at this point.
分析記事 Aug 12

Amyris, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRS) Just Reported, And Analysts Assigned A US$10.91 Price Target

The analysts might have been a bit too bullish on Amyris, Inc. ( NASDAQ:AMRS ), given that the company fell short of...
Seeking Alpha Aug 08

Amyris' Vertically-Integrated Business Model Transitioning From Investment Mode To Payoff Mode

Amyris’ disruptive vertically-integrated business model should deliver favorable results beginning in H2 2022, linking synthetic biology, clean chemistry, precision fermentation, scaling, & hero ingredients with consumers, partners, & retailers. After spending $2+ billion over 15+ years developing revolutionary science, Q3 startups of a next-generation fermentation facility and finishing plants should significantly boost Amyris profitability for Ingredients and Consumer Products. Amyris can generate 100 times more revenue and profit dollars per milliliter by selling its Hero Ingredients as better-performing finished Consumer Products than selling them as bulk ingredients. Recent Consumer Brand success encouraged Amyris to spend heavily launching new brands; with heavy lifting largely behind them, rapid revenue growth should soon produce positive cash flow and profitability. A continuously-renewing R&D pipeline of 25+ new Hero Ingredients promises decades of rapid growth in high-margin Consumer Products and Ingredients, deserving a premium valuation. With the Heavy Lifting Almost Complete, the Benefits of Investing in Industry-leading Science and Building a Disruptive Vertically-Integrated Business Model Should Materialize in the Next 6-12 Months In the last 24 months, Amyris (AMRS) has made significant changes and invested heavily in its business model to become even more vertically-integrated and to leverage early successes launching its own Consumer Brands. This flurry of activity caught investors by surprise as major investments in new plants, 8 new Consumer Brand launches, acquisitions of consumer brands and innovative influencer/marketing technology companies, new management additions, and new agreements with marquee Retailers boosted spending which contributed to a massive decline in the stock, already weakened by a bear market decline in Biotech and the overall stock market. While this burst of investing surprised and scared investors over a potential need for continuing dilutive capital raises, we believe the heavy lifting is mostly done, cash burn will begin to decline in the 2nd Half of 2022 and into 2023, and that marketing exclusivity sales, better than expected milestone payments from ingredient deliveries out of the new fermentation plant and traditional plant financings, should bridge Amyris to positive cash flow in the next 9-12 months. Thereafter, we believe continued rapid 50-75% revenue growth in high-margin Consumer Products and better Ingredients margins thanks to the new fermentation plant should begin to deliver positive earnings, possibly in the next 12-18 months. (We will present a more detailed analysis of the financial aspects of the Amyris business model in another Seeking Alpha article very shortly.) This article focuses on how the new Amyris' Vertically-Integrated Business Model has been set up to deliver many years of rapid profitable growth: Vertically-Integrated Business Model: In contrast to its horizontally-focused competitors, Amyris has invested heavily to create a complete fully-integrated vertical “lab to market” business model starting with great science, host organism/enzyme strain engineering, molecule development plus precision fermentation and scaling of ingredient production, clean chemistry and downstream processing, final product formulation, direct-to-consumer sales and marketing plus collaborations with leading business partners and marquee retailers - and new digital tools of social media, influencers, and virtual mirrors to connect directly with consumers. New Fermentation Plant: On June 23, 2022, Amyris made its first production run at its $115 million Brazilian precision fermentation facility. COO Eduardo Alvarez: "The start-up of our Barra Bonita facility is a significant milestone for Amyris...Our team has delivered the world's leading precision fermentation facility for producing natural products using highly engineered organisms." We believe new equipment, processes, and multiple lines will offer greater flexibility, efficiency, and scaling that should significantly reduce ingredient costs and boost margins for both Ingredients and Consumer Products. 2 New Consumer Finishing Plants: In the last few months, Amyris has already started formulating and filling bottles for a few of its Consumer products at the new Reno, Nevada and Sao Paolo, Brazil finishing facilities. As they replace Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs), we believe we should see fewer out-of-stocks and a 5-10% improvement in Consumer operating margins over the next few quarters. Multi-channel distribution via Partner Collaborations, Launching New Consumer Brands and Marquee Retailers: On the strength of superior science, IP, and know-how, advantaged scaling, and better-performing "Hero Ingredients," Amyris has been able to implement a multi-channel go-to-market approach: (1) Selling its Hero Ingredients to end market industry participants; (2) Producing its Hero Ingredients on an exclusive basis for certain industry leaders; (3) Going directly to consumers ((DTC)) with its own Consumer Brands at a 100x revenue multiplier and (3) working with Marquee Retailers to distribute Amyris brands and exclusive brands for major retailers. Payoff from Complete Integrated Business Model: With most of the heavy spending behind them and with high margins, Amyris just needs to execute, and once its rapid revenue growth covers its high R&D and other fixed costs, we believe that it will be generating significant free cash flow and rapid earnings growth. The Amyris Vertically-Integrated SynBio Business Model The science of synthetic biology can be complex and the fully-integrated Amyris business model has many moving parts. As we describe the Amyris business model, please refer to the flowchart below as best my partner Ben Bratt and I can depict. At the outset, note that Amyris' competitors' horizontal business models stop at the second step, delivering the engineered organism to their customers, leaving it to the customers to complete the remaining steps: Tanaka Capital Management Amyris' commercial success at delivering 13 out of 13 ingredients from its R&D pipeline and now its more recent success at launching and rapidly growing several Consumer Brands where consumers can see the better performance of its "Hero" Ingredients are clear indicators the Amyris business model is working. For Amyris investors, the heavy investment period building this integrated business model has been painful, particularly in the last 9 months. Amyris now just needs to execute to earn a payoff on these investments. It has taken Amyris years of investing with a lot of experimental trial and error research, analysis, and spending to develop its unique and highly integrated business model. For companies following Amyris, given the newness and unpredictability of fermenting with living organisms, there will be few shortcuts and we believe the path will be daunting. As we work down the Business Model flow chart above, it is important to understand that Amyris' model has developed lines of communication and data flow up and down the vertical stack. From the fundamental lab science, strain engineering, ingredient selection, fermentation, production scaling, clean chemistry, downstream processing, and product formulations to industry partners, influencers, major retailers, and final consumers, the arrows go both directions as data inform those above and below in the stack to improve efficiency, quality, and time to market. The result is that Amyris can make better decisions on which molecules to research or which tweaks to make to yeast strain designs to optimize production efficiencies or how much chemistry to use vs. biology or what changes need to be made with ingredient formulations to get better performance in the end products for consumers. 1. Model Starts with GREAT SCIENCE (1st Step in Flowchart) Amyris has established a multi-year lead in its science as discussed in our prior Seeking Alpha article, "Amyris Is Strengthening Its Lead In the Next Industrial Revolution" on March 30, 2021. Over its almost 20 years of existence, Amyris has accumulated substantial know-how and intellectual property or IP. We have been informed by biochemists that Amyris has established domain dominance and key patents in all stages of its business model. The illustration below (credit scientist Wiffle1 (u/Wiffle1) - Reddit) presents just some of the patents that Amyris has established in strain discovery and engineering of both the host organism (yeast at this point) and pathway enzymes, scale-up of fermentation, and downstream processing, which includes filtering, purification, and additional chemistry. It is widely recognized in the industry that Amyris has particularly strong IP dominance in terpenes. It is the largest chemical class with 80,000 compounds (out of 350,000 known chemicals), many of which have been extracted from plants and crude oil and used in the manufacture of biopolymers, inks, flavors and fragrances, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, biofuels, and natural rubber as described in "frontiers in Science". According to Wiffle1, Amyris IP in terpene technology and Acetyl-CoA flux technology sit on top of the strain stability IP (left below). One of Amyris' core strengths is its strain stability during fermentation runs which typically take several days. If not run with ideal conditions, fermentation batches could develop mutations that lead to reduced yields and higher costs/kg., making precision fermentation of target molecules difficult to scale. Amyris Multi-Stage Patent Pool: Source: Wiffle1, Reddit 2. MOLECULE PIPELINE is Extensive (2nd Step in Flowchart) Amyris has a significant head start in the synthetic biology industry with an extensive library of organism strains that it developed under a $34 million 2015 DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) grant. Amyris has been able to take its learnings from the DARPA "Living Foundries: 1000 Molecules" program to "develop tools and processes" and by trial-and-error engineer strains of yeast and other organisms that would consume sugar and produce through fermentation 250 different target molecules that had been identified by the US government as strategically important. Since then, Amyris has improved on those original strains using CRISPR, machine learning, AI, high-performance computing, biology, and chemistry to engineer increasingly efficient yeast strains and enzymes and is actually producing some of those molecules at scale today. Amyris has used those learnings to build a high-grade R&D pipeline of 25 molecules, which it has carefully evaluated and cultivated to address several large, high-margin market opportunities. Some of these are being developed at the request of industrial partners, and some by its Consumer Products teams for Amyris' own Consumer Brands. At a NASDAQ Investor Day event on April 11, 2022, Sunil Chandran, Amyris Head of R&D, reiterated that Amyris has mastered most of the 21 known chemical families and pathways which show the breadth of opportunities and why we believe that synthetic biology will be the next big industrial revolution with Amyris leading the way. To underscore the breadth and depth of Amyris' scientific expertise, Sunil mentioned that Amyris could engineer strains of organisms to ferment almost all of the 326,000 molecules known in nature in my December 15, 2020 interview with Sunil and CEO John Melo. The 2nd half of the interview is here: Part 2 of the R&D interview. At NASDAQ, Sunil also mentioned to me that Amyris' dominance in terpene IP derived from its early struggles to make farnesene for biofuels. He explained that once you develop platform capabilities in one chemical family, you can apply the learnings to other chemicals in that family. It's nice to have dominant expertise in terpenes, the largest chemical class from which Amyris has already been able to develop and produce at scale the artemisinin anti-malarial treatment, biofuels, vitamin E, squalane, hemisqualane, cannabinoids (CBD and CBG), and Reb-M sweetener. 3. IMPORTANCE OF SCALING (3rd Step in Flowchart): Next-Generation Ingredients Precision Fermentation Facility Coming On Stream at Barra Bonita, Brazil The science is difficult, but scaling production is not easy and Amyris has just successfully initiated precision fermentation of vanillin at its new state-of-the-art Barra Bonita plant (shown below). With 8 large fermentation tanks (left), this facility will allow Amyris flexibility to ferment five different ingredients at the same time plus time for clean and prep, offering much greater efficiency and lower cost to Amyris and its partners. Amyris website: Barra Bonita photos - August 2021 showing 8 large stainless fermentation tanks - 8/10/21 Opco Tech Conference slides (left) and plant just before June 23, 2022 commercial production - 6/14/22 Opco Consumer and E-commerce conference slides (right) The potential savings and efficiencies are enormous. To date, partly due to its rapid growth and capacity shortages, Amyris has relied on expensive third-party contract manufacturing organizations to do batches of upstream fermentation runs as well as using other CMOs for downstream chemical processing and final consumer product form, fill and packaging. This has been costly due to inefficiencies and delays as well as vulnerabilities to inflationary pressures exacerbated by Covid and supply chain shortages, particularly from China. Our understanding is that it will take a few quarters to transition from CMOs to Amyris' new fermentation facility as well as to its two consumer finishing plants. On the Q1 conference call, CEO Melo said that Barra Bonita would help boost target gross margins on "Technology Access" Ingredients from 27% to 35-40%. The new Barra Bonita plant has two 100,000-liter fermenters and six 200,000-liter tanks that are twice as tall as the older 200,000-liter fermenters at the DSM Brotas plant, allowing gravity to mix the fermentation broth with much less energy consumption. (Amyris built the first-generation Brotas, Brazil plant in 2012 to make only farnesene in one line. The Brotas plant was later sold to DSM to raise capital.) Sunil confirms that Amyris has also installed some of its own unique proprietary equipment and processes at the Barra Bonita plant. A scientist in the Amyris subreddit community shared this very insightful article "On Why Industrial Scaling Is So Challenging" to offer just one example of how Amyris cleverly uses genetic switches to maximize yield in the fermentation broth -- just one of many IP obstacles that will make it more costly for competitors to follow Amyris. Recently, management stated the new Barra Bonita plant is already sold out through 2023 and that its next capacity expansion in 2023 will be the installation of four already existing 600,000-liter stainless steel fermentation tanks that Amyris had built a few years ago to make biofuels. They were mothballed after the last oil crash. We would like to learn how quickly those mega tanks can be installed in a "Barra Bonita 2" facility and how much greater efficiency, productivity, cost reduction, and revenue increases could result from these large fermenters. As Barra Bonita 1's infrastructure and utilities were designed with extra space to accommodate add-on facilities (visible in the photos), our understanding is that a Barra Bonita 2 expansion would come at significantly lower incremental capital cost/ton of fermentation capacity. 4. DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING: Purification and Clean Chemistry (4th Step in Flowchart) While all key ingredients need to be purified from the fermentation broth, some may need clean chemical processing steps to more efficiently produce a target molecule. CEO Melo and Sunil Chandran have both indicated it is not widely appreciated that biology is only half of the formula for successful Synthetic Biology. The other half is chemistry. At NASDAQ, Sunil explained that there is a tradeoff. Sometimes, it is expensive to do it all in biology or it might make more sense to use biology to produce an intermediate step and finish with chemistry. For example, Amyris ferments farnesene and uses chemistry to convert it into squalane or jet fuel, an important part of downstream processing. As reflected at the right side of the previous "Amyris Multi-stage Patent" Pool illustration, Amyris has considerable patent protection and know-how in large-scale chemistry and downstream processing. 5. PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT & FORMULATION Required for Superior Consumer Products (5th Step in Flowchart) At NASDAQ, Chief Strategy Officer Annie Tsong described the importance of formulation in developing final products that make a difference for consumers. She emphasized both chemistry and know-how are needed to combine Amyris' Hero Ingredients with other clean and sustainable ingredients to make products that are better for consumers and better for the environment. While it is critical to have Hero Ingredients that perform noticeably better for consumers, you need other ingredients to make the product work, such as the right emollients which keep the squalane oil from separating from the other ingredients. The illustration below from Wiffle1 describes how Amyris has not only constructed an integrated business plan but has developed intellectual property and patent filings to protect all stages of the Amyris' process from raw material building blocks to the biosynthetic pathway to manufacturing and finally to product formulation. This again gets a bit technical but shows the strength and thoroughness of Amyris' IP, in this case, for the production and formulation of its Reb-M stevia sweetener. As you view this patent portfolio for just one molecule, be aware that CEO Melo informed me that Amyris' know-how is as important as its patent filings. Source: Wiffle1, Reddit Amyris Builds Consumer Products Finishing Plants in Reno and Sao Paolo (red boxes in Flowchart Step 5) We've discussed how difficult it is to develop innovative biology and chemistry to engineer organisms to efficiently ferment better-performing molecules, then to be able to scale precision fermentation, then to do downstream processing to deliver better-performing and more pure ingredients, and then formulate your active ingredients with other ingredients to produce better-performing and clean and sustainable finished products for consumers. We were surprised to learn that "form, fill & packaging" costs are a higher percent of sales than the actual ingredients for Amyris' consumer products. The cost structure has been challenged initially by producing at low volumes and in start-up mode for many of its product SKUs. It has also been costly to be growing so rapidly and having to rely on 3rd-party contract manufacturers in a time of supply chain shortages and Covid slowdowns, especially in China. These factors should improve as Amyris scales its own new finishing plants. For Consumer Products, the new Reno and Sao Paolo finishing facilities have already started making products, and this should contribute to improved cash flows. While management has said they expect to deliver a 5-10% point improvement in Consumer gross margins, we would expect faster cycle times and possibly even better margin performance from economies of scale and improvements in the purchasing department. 6. PRODUCTS: Amyris has Succeeded in Creating Hero Ingredients for Partners, Value-added Consumer Products, and Promising Ingredients for Healthcare. (6th Step in Flowchart) Amyris has developed great science, fermentation processes, and formulations that make a difference, but it is also not easy to create several different products for multiple end market verticals simultaneously. Amyris has spent much time, effort, and capital in the last few years to establish an increasingly diversified mix of ingredients as well as finished consumer products for a variety of end markets -- some with partners (shown below under "Technology Access") and some for its own "Consumer Brands": Source: Amyris June 14, 2022 Oppenheimer Conference 6a. AMYRIS INGREDIENTS: Barra Bonita and ongoing Molecule Exclusivity sales are expected to boost Ingredients to above-average profitability (left side of Step 6 of Flowchart) The original Amyris business model was to engineer organisms that would produce specific molecules that industry partners requested. These partners could use molecules in their own products, having the advantage of already knowing what their customers want and having a sales force to create demand. Indeed, for many ingredients for large already existing markets, it is more efficient and a faster time to market for industry partners to use their large established sales forces to access their consumers than for Amyris to try to address those markets. For example, the Amyris website quotes James P. Zallie, CEO of Ingredion, Amyris' new partner for the Reb-M non-calorie sweetener: “The Amyris partnership and collaboration on Reb M from fermentation is progressing well, and initial customer feedback for this great tasting product has been very positive ... fermented Reb M ... has tremendous benefits from both the costs and sustainability platform, and we couldn’t be aligned with a better technology partner in Amyris, a leader in synthetic biology.” In reality, the Ingredients part of the model has not yet worked well financially as Amyris has struggled to generate positive gross margins on Ingredients (segment now called "Technology Access") due to its heavy reliance on expensive outside contract manufacturers and recently significant supply chain problems. Amyris does not disclose Ingredient or Consumer Product gross margins but has said recently that Consumer gross margins are in the 60-70% range. So, if we assume Consumer Product Gross margins of about 64% in 2021 and 2022 (lower percentages in prior years) and subtract estimated Consumer gross profit from total company gross profit, we estimate by subtraction Ingredients had negative gross profits in each of the last 4 years as shown in the table below. Ingredients had a very large implied loss of $63 million in 2021 due to elevated supply chain delays, expenses, and $10 million airfreight costs. Even if some of those supply chain costs were incurred in the Consumer Products area, that is a big number and represented a large part of the "cash burn" issue of the last few quarters. We should point out these numbers exclude what management refers to as "one-off" gains on the sale of specific molecules and the "upfront" fees collected on the sale of molecule exclusivity rights exercised by partners opting to purchase exclusive rights to Amyris' production of a particular molecule. In 2021, these "upfront" fees were $150 million from DSM and $10 million from Ingredion, which, if included in Ingredients, would have produced an Ingredients segment gross profit of $97 million. Tanaka Capital Management estimates by subtracting estimated Consumer gross profits from Corporate gross profits We believe it is important to understand that Amyris expects to do more Molecule Exclusivity sales as an ongoing feature in its Business Model, they are very margin enhancing and structured quite differently from the outright sales of yeast strains for Vitamin A or Vitamin E in 2017 and 2019. It is an opportunity for Amyris to get paid a premium by certain partners that are willing to pay up for a more dominant position in a specific market and for a reliable high-volume source of pure ingredients. Note that deals require Amyris to be the producer (with Amyris benefitting from future fermentation cost efficiencies) and may allow Amyris to sell its own Consumer products with the ingredient as in the case of PureCane with Reb-M. While the timing of Molecule Exclusivity sales is difficult to predict, it appears that future sales will include annual earnouts and profit sharing which we believe should be included in analysts' estimates of ongoing revenues and earnings for modeling purposes due to their relatively recurring nature. We highlight in yellow above the annual earnouts estimated for 2022-2025 from the DSM and Ingredion exclusivity deals signed in 2021 which at 100% margin enhances the Ingredients margins, for example, from 36.2% to 51.9% in 2025 by our estimates. It is also important to realize that as Barra Bonita and downstream processing facilities ramp in the next few quarters, there could be a massive $91 million positive swing from the $63 million gross profit loss in 2021 to an estimated $28 million positive gross profit in 2023. This highlights the importance of a smooth startup of Barra Bonita. We believe the new low-cost Barra Bonita fermentation facility will enable Amyris to manage its production much more efficiently, with higher yields, lower costs, significant economies of scale, and more favorable gross margins vs. Amyris' past dependence on CMOs. We believe that the combination of Amyris-managed plants replacing CMOs and the layering in of Molecule Exclusivity earnouts should boost Ingredient margins dramatically over the next 12-18 months and could become the most important contributors to the bridge to Amyris profitability. A smooth startup of Barra Bonita could be the biggest step in the swing to profitability and may have already begun. CEO Melo messaged comments and photos from the new facility on Instagram on July 15, 2022: "At Barra Bonita plant today...2nd big line starting tonight...third on the way...sweet smell of vanillin all around the plant...just getting in the groove of solid operating performance." "Truckloads of vanillin leaving this afternoon...we are now making tons of product daily..." "First 3 lines represent one Brotas facility...much more efficient, much more flexible...made for powering beauty, health, wellness and ingredients for the good of the planet." Note the size of the Barra Bonita facility (left) and the tank truck leaving Barra Bonita on July 18, 2022 filled with vanillin: Amyris website from video showing large plant footprint (left) and Ingredients truck leaving Barra Bonita in July with vanillin (right) 6b. WHY CONSUMER BRANDS? (middle of Step 6 in Flowchart) If the original business model was to produce and sell ingredients to industry partners, why is Amyris developing its own consumer brands, possibly in competition with its industry partners? In 2017, Amyris launched its first Consumer Brand, Biossance, out of necessity. Beauty industry partners were slow to change and use its ingredients and Amyris wanted to prove they really perform better. CEO Melo told me leading cosmetic companies were using only 3% squalane as a moisturizing ingredient in their formulations despite studies demonstrating that 10% or more squalane would be more effective. Amyris believed in its science and launched its own brand, Biossance. To launch Biossance, Amyris recruited industry veterans Catherine Gore (formerly at Sephora and grew Kendo Brands to $500 million sales in 5 years) and Caroline Hadfield (LVMH, Sephora, The Body Shop, now CEO of Rose, Inc.). In the last 5 years, they found Amyris could formulate its own clean cosmetics (meaning safe and sustainable) line and grow it faster than many believed. Biossance has become the fastest-growing clean beauty brand at Sephora for over 3 years. It has also built a robust online Direct-To-Consumer presence to become over half of revenues. The online DTC business became a valuable asset during Covid and has become an invaluable DTC blueprint for additional Amyris consumer brands. Biossance has grown revenues from $19 million in 2019 to being on track to double in 2022 to over $100 million according to CEO Melo at the UBS Conference. That is a CAGR of 74%/year for Biossance during Covid and has caught the cosmetics industry by surprise. Why? We believe a large part of Biossance's success can be attributed to its science-based formulations using "Hero" Ingredients. Amyris calls them "Hero" Ingredients because they actually deliver noticeably better and cleaner performance for consumers. We also believe its success resulted from Amyris' ability to attract top management and team members who want to join companies that are winning with great science and new innovative ingredients that are clean and sustainable for consumers and the planet. As seen below, Biossance has been winning many awards with its innovative formulations powered by science and Hero Ingredients such as "squalane" and is now one of ten Amyris Consumer Brands: Source: Amyris website and June 14, 2022 Oppenheimer Conference Amyris follows Biossance's success with PureCane, Pipette, Terasana, JVN, Rose Inc., Costa Brazil, MenoLabs, and soon Stripes, EcoFabulous, and a brand for Walmart Many wondered if Amyris just got lucky with Biossance. With no history in the cosmetics industry, Amyris was fortunate to have Sephora take on Biossance as a new clean beauty brand. Biossance was also fortunate to launch an online DTC presence well before consumers started shopping more online during Covid. Could Amyris be equally successful launching brands in other consumer end markets and could the Amyris consumer model work with other "Hero" Ingredients beyond squalane? In 2019, Amyris launched PureCane, a line of more pure versions of the Stevia, no-calorie sweetener, to showcase to the food and beverage industry the benefits of a pure (no bitter after-taste) Reb-M sweetener as the Hero Ingredient, and Pipette, which has become a category leader in clean baby and family care products, including baby shampoo, bath wash, lotion, hand wash, hand sanitizer, and 50 spf suntan lotion with squalane as the Hero ingredient. Last summer, Amyris launched several new Consumer Brands, including Terasana (for acne, skin redness, and inflammation), JVN (clean hair care), and Rose Inc (clean color cosmetics). While Terasana has not done as well as expected due to limitations on its ability to advertise the amazing efficacy of its Hero Ingredients CBG & squalane for acne and inflammation, JVN and Rose Inc have greatly exceeded expectations. JVN is expected to generate $50 million in revenues and be profitable in its first year, already matching Biossance's 4th year of revenues. JVN utilizes a new Hero ingredient, hemisqualane which Amyris scientists developed from the squalane molecule to better nourish hair, reduce frizz, and replace silicone which is damaging to the health of hair and to the water system. With this miracle molecule, hemisqualane, we believe JVN can challenge Olaplex (OLPX), which is a $9 billion market cap haircare brand, expected to do $824 million in revenues this year. Google Search Trends data below reflect how JVN's search interest is already years ahead of the launch of Biossance which has become a category leader in clean beauty. GreenandGreen At the Oppenheimer Webcast on June 14, 2022, CEO Melo reconfirmed that Consumer Brand revenues will grow over 150% in 2022 and mentioned that Rose Inc will grow 480% this year, JVN by 300%, PureCane by 347%, and Pipette by 178%. We caution that the first two are new brands growing from a very low base year. The real surprises are the 347% and 178% growth rates for PureCane and Pipette, which are two older brands. For Pipette, this growth is likely related to the nationwide rollout of Pipette by Walmart into all its US stores which just began on July 20th. PureCane must be lining up a similar large retail arrangement or contracts with a large food or beverage company through its partner Ingredion, but this would be news to us. We look forward to hearing more about Costa Brazil, MenoLabs, and the soon-to-be-launched EcoFabulous for Millennials, Stripes brand for menopause, a new brand to be launched at Walmart, and a new men's care line to be introduced in 2023. We have believed for some time that the Amyris family of consumer brands could benefit from a synergistic halo effect with cross-selling opportunities as consumers learn to associate the name "Amyris" with clean, safe, and better-performing proprietary "Hero" Ingredients powered by science. 6c. HEALTHCARE a New Vertical (right side of Step 6 of Flowchart) Amyris has long been aware of the lure of the very large and high-margin healthcare markets that could very well benefit from its ability to ferment healthcare molecules, including pharmaceuticals more cheaply and in more pure form than by traditional pharma industry methods. Fortunately, Amyris is also aware of the very long lead times, regulatory hurdles, and high failure rates in drug development, so it is moving carefully into healthcare with industry partners. One of the most promising near-term potential healthcare opportunities is the first of 4 vaccines being developed by AAHI, the Access to Advanced Health Institute, formerly called IDRI. We discussed this very large but high-risk opportunity in our November 12, 2021 Seeking Alpha "Amyris Buying Opportunity Created By Q3 Miss, Mega Convert & Potential Revolutionary COVID Vaccine". In June, 50/50% partner ImmunityBio (IBRX) initiated enrollment for multiple Phase 1 human trials in South Africa and Botswana. We expect little information flow until trials have progressed over the next few months, but if positive, it could be worth multiples of Amyris' current market capitalization and you may want to read that SA article. We are confident that Amyris will continue to add new Consumer Brands, add more SKUs to existing Consumer Brands, add more Ingredients, sign more Molecule Exclusivity deals, and enter new end market verticals like Healthcare. 7. REVENUE-GENERATING CHANNELS: 16+ Industry Partners, 11 Amyris Consumer Brands, 12+ Major Retailers, and a Healthcare Vertical (Step 7) The final step in the Amyris' Vertically-Integrated Business Model is about marketing and establishing multiple channels to generate revenue where Amyris is exceeding expectations. We have discussed how Amyris is partnering with industry leaders to access Health, Beauty, & Wellness markets more quickly as well as by building its own Consumer brands Direct-to-Consumer online sales platforms and through a few select retailers. This year and next year we expect brick-and-mortar retailers to take off, providing significant scale to the distribution of several Amyris brands.
Seeking Alpha Jul 08

Amyris: Revenues Need To Catch Expenses

There are high hopes that Amyris’ Barra Bonita plant will rein in costs and improve the company’s profitability. Fermentation is just one cost component though, meaning Barra Bonita will only have a limited impact, particularly on the consumer business. A breakdown of expenses shows that Amyris has a lot of fixed costs that the company will need to grow into. Many investors expect that once Barra Bonita is fully operational, Amyris (AMRS) will be highly profitable. While Barra Bonita will improve Amyris' financials, manufacturing is only one component of costs. Amyris is vertically integrating, which introduces fixed costs and can be a heavy burden when operating below the optimal scale. With sufficient resources to generate 500-1,000 million USD in product revenue, Amyris needs to grow into its cost structure. This situation is being exacerbated by supply chain issues and elevated customer acquisition costs for DTC companies. The true economics of Amyris' business should become clearer over the next 12 months and will be dependent on the strength of their consumer brands and production costs for their ingredients business. Figure 1: Impact of Internal versus External Supply on Costs (source: Created by author) Amyris is engaged in three very different core activities, which need to be considered separately when trying to understand cost drivers: R&D - Amyris develops organisms that produce molecules through fermentation. These molecules are monetized through their ingredients or consumer products businesses. The R&D business can also generate revenue by performing services for customers and through licensing and royalties. R&D is largely a fixed cost that must be covered by profits from the other businesses. Ingredients - Amyris sells ingredients b2b, the economics of which are driven by fermentation costs. Amyris have been reliant on expensive 3rd party fermentation and have realized ingredients revenue upfront through contracts with customers. As a result, the ingredients business has likely been losing money on a gross profit basis. Consumer Products - Amyris has built a number of consumer brands around their fermented molecules. The economics of this business is largely driven by customer acquisition costs. Competition amongst DTC brands and Apple's privacy changes have increased customer acquisition costs for DTC brands in recent years. Gross Margins Amyris' ingredients and consumer businesses have very different gross margin profiles, and hence gross profit margins are highly dependent on the revenue split between these businesses. Amyris have stated that they are targeting gross profit margins of 35-40% for the ingredients business and 65% for the consumer business. As consumer products become the dominant driver of revenue for Amyris, gross profit margins should rise. This trend has generally been observed in the past, except for the last 3 quarters where a number of factors have depressed margins. Figure 2: Amyris Gross Profit Margins (source: Created by author using data from Amyris) Amyris are in the process of bringing consumer product manufacturing and fermentation in house. There are costs associated with starting up these operations, which have been incurred while still having to pay for third party manufacturing and fermentation. Amyris plans to be performing over 70% of consumer product manufacturing internally by the fourth quarter of 2022. They estimate that this, along with a move to their own fulfilment, will add 5% to consumer gross profit margins. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, 10% of their highest volume products were already produced in Reno. Amyris now has consumer manufacturing facilities in Reno and Brazil, with the Reno facility having a capacity of 50 million units per year on one shift and the Brazilian site having a capacity of 30 million units per year on one shift. Amyris have stated that these facilities should support about 400-500 million USD of consumer revenue annually, assuming that 70-80% of demand is met by their own manufacturing capacity. The production of some items will continue to be performed by third parties as they are unique to the point that it doesn't make sense for Amyris to invest in the capital equipment necessary to manufacture them. Production of Vanillin at the Barra Bonita plant recently began, marking the beginning of an insourcing of fermentation. Amyris plans to produce most of their ingredients at Barra Bonita in the second half of 2022 and expect that this will result in a 20% improvement in gross profit margins for the ingredients business. Amyris expect that by the third quarter Barra Bonita will be fully operational and supplying most of their ingredients, except carnosine, which will continue to come from the plant acquired by DSM. Commercial production was slated to begin with F&F ingredients in Q2, followed by nutrition products in the second half of the year and then farnesene, etc. Amyris have stated that Barra Bonita will enable approximately 200 million USD of ingredients revenue annually. Improvements in fermentation costs are likely to be due to a combination of improved operational efficiency and the elimination of high mark-ups by third parties. Demand for contract manufacturing is currently high and supply constrained, leading to high costs. Amyris is also reliant on fermentation in Spain, where costs are further elevated by energy prices. Barra Bonita has been specifically designed for the precision fermentation of Amyris' molecules and as a result efficiency should be higher than generic third-party facilities. Amyris is utilizing a vertical fermentation design to reduce power requirements and 50% more input lines and control sensors. There are also likely to be significant gains in downstream processing, which is often process specific and hence more difficult for CMOs to manage. Despite essentially being a commodity business, ingredients could be reasonably profitable for Amyris if they can achieve the right cost structure. Molecules in Amyris' pipeline generally have a 40-50% cost advantage over current production methods. Depending on how market prices are impacted by Amyris' production, gross margins should therefore be expected to fall in the 30-55% range. Figure 3: Example Cost Curve in a Commodity Market (source: Created by author) Supply chain issues have weighed heavily on Amyris over the past year. In the first quarter of 2022 management attributed 20 million USD to global supply chain issues. This was due to higher manufacturing costs, elevated freight costs and air freight to deal with delays. Amyris have been building inventory to help manage supply chain uncertainty and freight costs are now in freefall, meaning supply chain issues are unlikely to be a major issue going forward. Amyris is planning an accounting change that will negatively impact gross margins in the second half of the year. Pick, pack and ship costs are currently included in operating expenses but will be moved to COGS. Amyris expect this change to reduce operating expenses by 20%, but the impact on gross margins should be offset by the gains discussed above. Operating Margins While improvements in gross profit margins are important, operating expenses are the primary concern for Amyris. Figure 4: Amyris Operating Expenses (source: Created by author using data from company reports) Management have stated that they are targeting quarterly cash operating costs of 85-90 million USD, with another 11 million USD of stock-based compensation. This will be achieved by moving pick, pack and ship costs to COGS, along with a 10 million USD reduction in spending on outside services and a 20 million USD reduction of marketing spend. Amyris are targeting 1 billion USD revenue in 2024 with 20% operating profit margins. Margins will not be maximized until annual revenue is above 1.5 billion USD, with Amyris targeting gross margins of 60-65% and adjusted EBITDA margins of 30-35% (operating margins of 20-25%). SG&A expenses are expected to stabilize at around 500 million USD per year and R&D costs are currently around 100 million USD per year. By capitalizing investments in intangible assets and adjusting for operating leverage, a clearer picture of Amyris' profitability, independent of scale or growth, emerges. This again points towards operating margins around 20%, achieved at a scale of approximately 1.5 billion USD annual revenue. Adjusting margins for growth and scale is somewhat subjective and assumes that the optimal scale will eventually be achieved and that investments in intangibles are productive. Figure 5: Amyris Operating Profit Margins (source: Created by author using data from company reports) Employee Expenses Much of Amyris' current predicament is due to the fact that they are investing ahead of growth and have a large R&D business. Amyris have acquired or launched 6 consumer brands in the past 12-18 months and plan to launch another 3 this year. There is a headcount associated with each of these brands, even if they are not currently generating much revenue. In addition, Amyris is insourcing a number of activities, which is contributing to growth in the number of employees. Amyris likely currently has somewhere around 1,200 employees and in 2021 their median annual total compensation was 117,489 USD. Average compensation is likely to skew significantly higher as Amyris employs a large number of PhDs. Given this and other non-compensation expenses tied to employees (training, insurance, etc.) it would not be surprising if annual employee related expenses were around 200 million USD. Employee expenses increased by 88 million USD on an annualized basis between Q1 2021 and Q1 2022 alone. Amyris needs to scale their business significantly to cover these expenses, which will take time. Figure 6: Operating Profit Margins and Employee Efficiency for Beauty Brands (source: Created by author using data from company reports) Figure 7: Amyris Hiring Trends (source: Revealera.com) Marketing Expenses Marketing is another key cost driver for Amyris and is the key to their consumer business. One of the main concerns regarding Amyris should be if their brands are actually performing poorly and sales are only being achieved using large marketing budgets. Marketing efficiency is important not just for Amyris' financials, but would be a large determinant of valuation should Amyris decide to divest a brand. Amyris do not break out marketing expenses, but it is likely that this is currently close to 100 million USD per year. Given that consumer revenue is only approximately 130 million USD, this is quite concerning. John Melo has stated that for a new brand, marketing expenses are generally 100% of sales and for a mature brand, 12.5% of sales. Given that most of Amyris' brands are new, and growing rapidly, it should be expected that marketing expenses are elevated. Not all marketing spend is the same either. Marketing can be used to create consumer awareness and a favorable opinion of a brand without directly trying to create sales. Marketing can also be aimed at creating immediate purchases, with little consideration for long-term brand value. The relationship between marketing spend and revenue growth is more direct with targeted advertising, but brand advertising can continue to generate sales long after it ends. If Amyris is primarily engaged in brand building, their elevated marketing expenses would be more understandable. It is likely that this is the case as educating consumers about relatively unknown molecules like hemi-squalane is a key part of their marketing strategy. Amyris' brands have a strong narrative (sustainable production), differentiated chemistry and customer feedback is generally extremely positive. Olaplex (OLPX) is a clear example of how a strong brand with a unique product can generate large amounts of revenue with limited marketing. At the other end of the scale are hundreds of DTC companies with generic products that rely completely on efficient targeted advertising.
Seeking Alpha May 11

Amyris: Elevated Cash Usage Causes Investors To Head For The Exits

Discussing sell-off in the shares after the company's Q1 report revealed a much higher cash usage than anticipated by market participants. Even when assuming cash usage to trend down for the remainder of the year, Amyris would likely run out of funds by the end of Q4 at the latest. Management is looking to raise $250+ million in net proceeds from a new ingredient licensing deal in the second half of the year. Company reiterated its previously issued financial outlook for 2022. While I reiterate my grave concerns regarding management's ability to execute on its stated targets, I am upgrading the shares from "sell" to "hold" based on discounted valuation and very limited near-term liquidity concerns.
Seeking Alpha Apr 28

Amryis Update: Building Value One Brick At A Time

2022 is the year of the “Brick” for Amyris as it completes construction of the World's Largest Fermentation Plant, Consumer Production Facilities, and entry into global “Brick-and-Mortar” Retail Chain Stores. Amyris continues to achieve scale across Geographies, Retail Partners, Brands, and Product Lines. Q1’22 Preliminary Order Data points to meeting and possibly exceeding guidance despite macro factors. A path to positive recurringoperating cash flow is within sight over the next 18th months. There are multiple non-dilutivemeasures available should headwinds appear, and capital is required.

決済の安定と成長

配当データの取得

安定した配当: AMRS.Qの 1 株当たり配当が過去に安定していたかどうかを判断するにはデータが不十分です。

増加する配当: AMRS.Qの配当金が増加しているかどうかを判断するにはデータが不十分です。


配当利回り対市場

Amyris 配当利回り対市場
AMRS.Q 配当利回りは市場と比べてどうか?
セグメント配当利回り
会社 (AMRS.Q)n/a
市場下位25% (US)1.4%
市場トップ25% (US)4.2%
業界平均 (Chemicals)1.7%
アナリスト予想 (AMRS.Q) (最長3年)n/a

注目すべき配当: AMRS.Qは最近配当金を報告していないため、配当金支払者の下位 25% に対して同社の配当利回りを評価することはできません。

高配当: AMRS.Qは最近配当金を報告していないため、配当金支払者の上位 25% に対して同社の配当利回りを評価することはできません。


株主への利益配当

収益カバレッジ: AMRS.Qの 配当性向 を計算して配当金の支払いが利益で賄われているかどうかを判断するにはデータが不十分です。


株主配当金

キャッシュフローカバレッジ: AMRS.Qが配当金を報告していないため、配当金の持続可能性を計算できません。


高配当企業の発掘

企業分析と財務データの現状

データ最終更新日(UTC時間)
企業分析2024/05/07 01:38
終値2024/05/07 00:00
収益2023/03/31
年間収益2022/12/31

データソース

企業分析に使用したデータはS&P Global Market Intelligence LLC のものです。本レポートを作成するための分析モデルでは、以下のデータを使用しています。データは正規化されているため、ソースが利用可能になるまでに時間がかかる場合があります。

パッケージデータタイムフレーム米国ソース例
会社財務10年
  • 損益計算書
  • キャッシュ・フロー計算書
  • 貸借対照表
アナリストのコンセンサス予想+プラス3年
  • 予想財務
  • アナリストの目標株価
市場価格30年
  • 株価
  • 配当、分割、措置
所有権10年
  • トップ株主
  • インサイダー取引
マネジメント10年
  • リーダーシップ・チーム
  • 取締役会
主な進展10年
  • 会社からのお知らせ

* 米国証券を対象とした例であり、非米国証券については、同等の規制書式および情報源を使用

特に断りのない限り、すべての財務データは1年ごとの期間に基づいていますが、四半期ごとに更新されます。これは、TTM(Trailing Twelve Month)またはLTM(Last Twelve Month)データとして知られています。詳細はこちら

分析モデルとスノーフレーク

本レポートを生成するために使用した分析モデルの詳細は当社のGithubページでご覧いただけます。また、レポートの使用方法に関するガイドYoutubeのチュートリアルも掲載しています。

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業界およびセクターの指標

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アナリスト筋

Amyris, Inc. 0 これらのアナリストのうち、弊社レポートのインプットとして使用した売上高または利益の予想を提出したのは、 。アナリストの投稿は一日中更新されます。15

アナリスト機関
J. HorwitzBaird
Carter DriscollB. Riley Securities, Inc.
Susan AndersonCanaccord Genuity