Earnings Labs

Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (BIOX)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Nov 17, 2015

$0.49

-5.58%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Marrone Bio Innovations third quarter update. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the meeting over to Linda Moore, General Counsel. Please go ahead.

Linda Moore

Analyst

Good afternoon. Before beginning, I would like to remind you that this conference call may contain statements regarding management's expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future as well as projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances. Such statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on the company. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting the company will be those that management has anticipated. Such statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are beyond management’s control or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these statements. Important factors that could cause differences are contained in the reports filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 10-K that the company filed on November 10, 2015 under the heading Risk Factors and elsewhere and in our earnings release posted on the company’s website. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize or should any of management’s assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those discussed today. Any guidance that management may offer in this conference call represents a point-in-time estimate. The company expressly disclaims any obligation to revise or update any guidance or other forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this call. After our remarks, we will answer your questions. There are slides with examples of key field data and product update information accompanying the information in this call which you can read at your leisure on our website in the Investor Relations section. Now I will turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Pam Marrone. Pam?

Pam Marrone

Analyst

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us. With me today are Jim Boyd, our Chief Financial Officer and as you just heard, Linda Moore, our General Counsel. We have completed a comprehensive, deliberate and intensive process of review of our historical operational and financial results. We are pleased to report that we are now current in our SEC reporting obligations. And with today’s call we intend to resume a regular quarterly reporting schedule. On behalf of the entire team here at Marrone Bio Innovations, I would like to begin by thanking our investors, our customers and our employees for their commanded patience you have afforded us over this past year. The review process has prompted a great deal of self examination for our company. We’ve taken a careful and critical look at our strengths and weaknesses and the goals we must still achieve. This has driven us to fine-tune a concise strategy that will take us forward. Our refined market strategy is centered on three key considerations each of which is designed to accelerate revenue growth. First, we are focusing on growing our sales of our current commercial products. Second, we are currently focusing our development on products that we believe have the strongest near term market demand. Third, we seek to accelerate international market growth. The company’s core focus is developing commercial products that the global agriculture industry needs. Our products are unique and proprietary which we believe puts us in a position to be a clear leader in the growing sustainable agriculture movement. On today's call we have quite a lot of ground to cover. We will detail the current state of the business financially and operationally, we will detail the refined market strategy we’ve adopted to focus our resource allocation as we seek to accelerate revenue…

Jim Boyd

Analyst

Thank you, Pam and good afternoon, everyone. I’d like to first walk you through our restatement for fiscal year 2013 and the first six months of 2014. I’ll then detail for you our financial performance for the full year of fiscal 2014 and the first nine months of 2015. I’ll also update you on our sales infrastructure, strategic financing, R&D restructuring and our manufacturing capabilities. Let’s start with a walk through the restatement. The primary driver for the restatement in all periods reflects the change in our revenue recognition method or a portion of our customer base. In the past, we had exclusively used the salient method of recognition, under which we recognized revenue when we shipped to our customer. We determined that certain transactions for certain customers, primarily those that were given return privileges should be accounted for under the sell-through method, under which we recognize revenue upon their shipment to our products to their customers. For the full year of 2013, we restated revenues as $8.4 million compared to our prior report of $14.5 million. For the first six months of 2014, we restated revenues of $5.8 million compared to our prior report of $6.4 million. While this reduces 2013 sales by $6.1 million and the first six months of 2014 by $600,000, it is important to note that in all periods, we agreed to take returns for a total of $2 million in sales. As a result, as of December 31, 2013, we had $4.7 million of deferred product revenues, which as we recognize them, will have a positive impact on forward periods. As of December 31, in parallel, we also recorded $2.9 million of deferred cost of products on the balance sheet. On the bottom line, our reported net loss for 2013 is restated to $32.6…

Pam Marrone

Analyst

Thank you, Jim. We are rebuilding a focused and effective sales and marketing team that shares our value, including hiring highly experienced personnel, training our sales force and hiring a new Head of Marketing that we expect to join in December 2015 to guide an expanded marketing department. We have also worked diligently to reduce expenses, conserve cash and improve operating efficiencies. We remain focused on extracting greater value from our products and product pipeline and improving our communication to and connection with the global sustainability movement that is core to our cultural values. The market opportunity in front of us remains clear and compelling. Sustainability is key to both conventional and organic growers. They have a global movement that drives this trend and our business. Consumer demand for organic and for sustainable practices is reshaping our industry, our products, which are all listed for organic, made conventional crop production and helped management more effective and sustainable. Additionally for organic growers and growers wanting to transition to organic practices, we can be a key partner in this high-growth opportunity. While today it is a smaller part of our business, US organic acreage must grow at faster rates than the rest of the industry to meet consumer demand. This is why developing a broad suite of products across a wide range of growers’ need is the right strategy for growth. Our products are effective, enable sustainability and address real and significant and escalating needs. I’d like to thank you again for your attention and continued interest in Marrone Bio Innovations. And now operator, we are ready to take questions. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Laurence Alexander from Jefferies.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Hi, this is Jeff on for Laurence. On the product order flow, to what extent did the audits disrupt the orders in certain categories? Were some impacted more than others? And were there any bright spots that you saw in the past year versus maybe competitor products?

Pam Marrone

Analyst

I would answer that Jeff by saying that – this year was a transitional year and we are putting those distractions behind us, but we started the year with high – with channel inventory that was built for higher growth expectations. So as we depleted that inventory, worked off that channel inventory, then new sales started. So if you look at what was burned off in the channel and then the new shipments, we have increased pounds on the ground growth that are in a number of our markets. So particularly in California with Grandevo and Regalia, nuts and stone fruit, and as I mentioned on the call in a number of the berries and vegetable crops. So those are some of the bright spots.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great. And then if I can, on the R&D side, can you talk about where Marrone Bio is most differentiated versus your competitors?

Pam Marrone

Analyst

Yes, you know, that there is a – right now, there is a real push for all kinds of start-up in big companies and even our channel customers going into biosimilars. So we have reordered and reprioritized our pipeline, so that biosimilars like microbes that enhance growth are lower priority because we think that there is so many people in that segment that our strength is that registered, regulated bio pesticides that contain natural chemistry, then that chemistry gives us an effective dose on the pest and consistent good products killing the pest, and that we have the broadest portfolio across the full range of customer needs. And once we get our herbicide and biofumigation and some of the other things in the pipeline, it will – the real suite of needs of both organic and conventional growers.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

[Operator Instructions] I do have a follow-up from Jeff on Laurence Alexander’s line from Jefferies.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Sorry. Pam, if you could just talk about what the most important milestones over the next 12 to 18 months where investors are focused on, that would be really helpful? Thank you.

Pam Marrone

Analyst

Yes. So obviously by becoming current with our financials, that was the most biggest one to get through and then I think that you should look for -- we will report on our improvements and increase in acreage adoption as we did on this call. You should look for international distributor agreements that we inked, announcement about our activities in row crop like a row crop partner and adding through some of extraordinary expenses that we have had.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

And does MBII have the balance sheet to withstand a continued tough environment – product environment?

Jim Boyd

Analyst

Well, I think without giving any guide that we have told you that we have at least 12 months’ worth of cash. We have also told you that we have been burning cash at about $8 million per quarter and that we had done an additional restructuring in August of 2015. So I think that gives us a pretty good balance sheet.

Pam Marrone

Analyst

I’ll type in here and that has been a challenging ag market, but the organic acres and the need for sustainability and growth in that sustainable segment are actually more important factors we think. The low cost commodity prices are dominating in the row crops and we are not heavy in that market. Although – obviously that’s what might dampen future growth of getting into that segment. So it’s not – maybe not as severe on us as with some other company.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

And I appreciate all the color. Last one, if I can. On the turnover in employees, you mentioned I think the number was – they were cut in half. Did you see most of that in R&D or is most of that sales or how does that sort of break out?

Pam Marrone

Analyst

A bulk was in R&D. Yeah, R&D was cut by over – probably 50%.

Jim Boyd

Analyst

It was significant.

Pam Marrone

Analyst

It was significant across, sales no -- because of rebuilding our commercial side, but R&D [indiscernible].

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And that concludes our question-and-answer session for today. I would like to turn the conference back over to management for any additional comment.

Pam Marrone

Analyst

We don’t have any additional comments. Thank you, operator and I thank everybody for listening.