Amyris’ bankruptcy filing: Complete details

Here follows the complete Amyris statement with respect to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Amyris, Inc. (Nasdaq: AMRS) (“Amyris” or the “Company”), a leading synthetic biotechnology company accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable consumption through its Lab-to-Market™ technology platform and clean beauty consumer brands, today announced that it is moving forward with an operational and financial restructuring to further advance its ongoing strategic transformation and position the Company for long-term success.

The restructuring is intended to improve the Company’s cost structure, capital structure, and liquidity position while streamlining Amyris’ business portfolio to focus on its core competencies in R&D and the scale-up, commercialization, and applications development of its sustainable ingredients derived through biofermentation.

To facilitate the restructuring, Amyris and certain of its domestic subsidiaries commenced voluntary Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (the “Court”). Its entities outside the U.S. are not included in the proceedings.

In tandem, to advance the Company’s restructuring goals and maximize the value of its assets, Amyris is planning to exit its consumer brands and will begin marketing them for sale, with a view to having these brands continue to leverage Amyris’ cutting-edge science and technology while under new ownership. As the sale process progresses, Amyris will continue to operate these brands, including through retail partners and the brands’ e-commerce platforms.

Amyris has secured a commitment from an entity affiliated with existing lender Foris Ventures for $190 million of debtor-in-possession (“DIP”) financing to support continued day-to-day operations as the Company works with its key stakeholders to negotiate a consensual go-forward plan centered on Amyris’ core capabilities. Subject to Court approval and the DIP budget, this DIP financing will provide liquidity to help fulfill commitments to the Company’s valued employees, customers, partners, and vendors during the process.

“Since its founding 20 years ago, Amyris has been a pioneer in the development of ingredients made with synthetic biology and has enjoyed great commercial success, particularly as a result of our innovative Lab-to-Market™ technology platform, proven ability to rapidly bring new products to market, and state-of-the-art science and manufacturing infrastructure,” said Han Kieftenbeld, Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Amyris. “Over the past months, we have been hard at work on a strategic transformation plan to reduce costs, improve operational effectiveness, and achieve sustainable growth. We believe the step forward our company has taken today puts us on the best path to address our financial challenges and achieve a comprehensive solution – rooted in Amyris’ ground-breaking science, formulation capabilities, and technology.”

Mr. Kieftenbeld added, “Our aspiration to become the most efficient and productive biotechnology company in our industry has not changed. We remain incredibly excited about Amyris’ long-term potential and our uniquely talented team’s proven ability to deliver on the promise of synthetic biology and continue to make a lasting impact. At the end of this restructuring process, we believe that Amyris will emerge as a financially stronger company with a more focused business model and well-defined path to profitability. In turn, we will be poised to grow sustainably alongside our valued partners and make an even greater impact on our world through clean chemistry.”

To ensure a smooth transition into Chapter 11, the Company filed with the Court a series of customary motions seeking to continue operating as usual and uphold its commitments to its employees and other valued stakeholders during the process. These “first day” motions include requests to continue to pay wages and provide benefits to employees as usual and maintain its customer programs and policies. The Company intends to pay vendors in the ordinary course for all goods received and services rendered after the filing.

Additional Information

Court filings and other documents related to the Company’s restructuring are available at https://cases.stretto.com/Amyris. Vendors with questions can call a dedicated hotline at (888) 855-0485 (toll-free) or +1 (303) 276-0309 (international) or email [email protected].

Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP is serving as legal counsel, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP is serving as financial advisor, and Intrepid Investment Bankers LLC is serving as investment banker to the Company. Philip J. Gund of Ankura Consulting Group, LLC is serving as the Company’s Chief Restructuring Officer.

Reaction from stakeholders

Will Patrick, CEO, Culture Biosciences. I was saddened to see Amyris filing for bankruptcy today. I toured Amyris’s fermentation facility about 8 years ago and it was one of the key inspirations for starting Culture Biosciences. Countless current & former Amyris employees taught me what I know about fermentation. I’ll always appreciate the talent and capability that was developed at Amyris in strain development, fermentation development, and manufacturing scale-up. Many of the successes in the industry are derived from the skills and know-how developed at Amyris. I’m hopeful that whatever is on the other side of Chapter 11 is something sustainable and honors all the hard work from Amyris employees over the past 15 years. It’s a tough day for the Bay Area synthetic biology ecosystem. However, I believe that the best is yet to come. The learnings from the last 15 years can be translated into scalable products and businesses; it just may take longer than we all hoped for.

Oliver Yu, serial entrepreneur. Like Zymergen, Amyris never found a product-market fit. How these companies ended up in the public markets can only be explained by low-interest-rate exuberance. I hope your prediction comes true. But only with investors and executives alike understanding how we got here will brighter days be ahead.

Henrik Alex, Seeking Alpha. As expected, cash-strapped specialty renewable products developer Amyris Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection with court documents showing more than $1.3 billion in debt. The company plans to focus on its core competencies in R&D and the development of sustainable ingredients derived through biofermentation. Amyris will exit the consumer business and has started to marketing its remaining brands for sale. Largest stakeholder John Doerr has agreed to provide $190 million in debtor-in-possession financing. Should the company fail to achieve a consensual solution with key stakeholders within the next 35 days, all of its assets will be sold in a court-supervised auction pursuant to section 363 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. Regardless of the company emerging as a healthier, more focused organization or ending up being liquidated in bankruptcy, I do not expect any sort of recovery for common shareholders at this point. Investors should sell existing positions and move on.