Royal DSM To Make Equity Investment In Amyris With the Purpose of Establishing a Long-Term Relationship

HEERLEN, Netherlands and EMERYVILLE, Calif., May 08, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amyris, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMRS), the industrial bioscience company, and Koninklijke DSM N.V. (Royal DSM) (AEX:DSM.AS), the global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials, today announced that they have agreed for DSM to make an equity investment in Amyris. At the same time, the companies will enter into a development cooperation focused on products for the global health and nutrition markets (including vitamins and other nutritional ingredients). 

Amyris’ technology supports DSM’s strategic markets in health, nutrition, and materials as well as a growing consumer shift to (bio-) natural-like products derived from sustainable sources. For Amyris, DSM’s channels and market access and keen understanding in selecting the right products for the animal nutrition, human nutrition, and consumer health markets provide strategic value.

Equity Investment
DSM has agreed to make an initial equity investment in Amyris of US$25 million, translating into a shareholding of ~12%. Subject to the satisfaction of certain conditions, DSM may invest an additional US$25 million in Amyris. The first tranche is expected to close on Thursday, 11 May 2017, with a second tranche, if approved by DSM’s Managing Board, expected to close within 90 days of the closing of the first tranche. As part of this investment, DSM will gain one board seat upon the closing of each tranche.

As part of the agreement, DSM and Amyris have agreed to focus on a number of short- to medium-term product development & production opportunities in vitamins and other nutritional ingredients.

“We are very excited about DSM’s strategic focus in health and nutrition markets and its commitment to sustainable sourcing and production of better-performing products,” said John Melo, Amyris President & CEO. “The Amyris technology platform and potential synergy can lead to significant cost improvements for DSM while accelerating Amyris’s market access. We expect this will lead to incremental revenue in 2017, growing annually based on the number of products we develop in our partnership and our pace of delivery.”

“Amyris has a unique yeast-based strain engineering platform that is very complementary to DSM’s capabilities in this area and will create great synergy with DSM’s know-how in fermentation, downstream process development and large-scale manufacturing,” said Chris Goppelsroeder, President & CEO of DSM Nutritional Products. “Working closely together with Amyris and leveraging DSM’s route-to-market, will accelerate our innovation towards cost-effective, fermentation-based processes for both existing and new products."  

Terms of the private placement and related agreements are more fully disclosed in the Form 8-K filed by Amyris today with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available free of charge at sec.gov. 

DSM – Bright Science. Brighter Living.™ 
Royal DSM is a global science-based company active in health, nutrition and materials. By connecting its unique competences in Life Sciences and Materials Sciences DSM is driving economic prosperity, environmental progress and social advances to create sustainable value for all stakeholders simultaneously. DSM delivers innovative solutions that nourish, protect and improve performance in global markets such as food and dietary supplements, personal care, feed, medical devices, automotive, paints, electrical and electronics, life protection, alternative energy and bio-based materials. DSM and its associated companies deliver annual net sales of about €10 billion with approximately 25,000 employees. The company is listed on Euronext Amsterdam. More information can be found at www.dsm.com. 

About Amyris
Amyris is the integrated renewable products company that is enabling the world’s leading brands to achieve sustainable growth. Amyris applies its innovative bioscience solutions to convert plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules and produce specialty ingredients and consumer products. The company is delivering its No Compromise® products across a number of markets, including specialty and performance chemicals, flavors and fragrances, cosmetics ingredients, pharmaceuticals, and nutraceuticals. More information about the company is available at www.amyris.com.

DSM Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking statements with respect to DSM’s future (financial) performance and position. Such statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections of DSM and information currently available to the company. DSM cautions readers that such statements involve certain risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict and therefore it should be understood that many factors can cause actual performance and position to differ materially from these statements. DSM has no obligation to update the statements contained in this press release, unless required by law. The English language version of the press release is leading.

Amyris Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements regarding Amyris, and any statements regarding Amyris other than statements of historical facts could be deemed to be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, among other things, statements regarding future events (such as the anticipated establishment of a long-term relationship between Amyris and DSM, including the expected entry into a development cooperation focused on products for the global health and nutrition markets, the anticipated closing of the first tranche of the financing referenced above, including the timing thereof, the expected closing of a second tranche of financing, including the timing thereof, and anticipated acceleration of Amyris’s market access, and expected revenue and revenue growth in 2017 and beyond, resulting from the partnership with DSM) that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are based on management's current expectations and actual results and future events may differ materially due to risks and uncertainties, including risks related to manufacturing capacity at Amyris’s Brotas facility, delays or failures in development, production and commercialization of products, liquidity and ability to fund capital expenditures, Amyris’s reliance on third parties to achieve its goals, and other risks detailed in the “Risk Factors” section of Amyris’s annual report on Form 10-K filed on April 17, 2017. Amyris disclaims any obligation to update information contained in these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Amyris, the Amyris logo and No Compromise are registered trademarks of Amyris, Inc. All other trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners.