Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (BIOX) Reports Q3 Revenues Beat, Comp. Revenues Up 9%

Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (NYSE: BIOX) reported Q3 EPS of $, versus ($0.11) reported last year. Revenue for the quarter came in at $25.67 million versus the consensus estimate of $20 million.

Fiscal 3Q20 Financial and Business Highlights

• Comparable Revenues up 9%, with growth across key product lines in strategic markets and despite growers’ hesitation to make pre-season purchases due to a temporary period of uncertainty related to the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Revenue growth was mainly driven by further penetration of crop protection markets in Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, strong sales of seed treatment packs in Europe, as well as a continued recovery in Argentina.
• Bioceres raised over $50 million of capital during the quarter through a private placement of a convertible promissory note due 2023 for $42.5 million and a public bond issuance by Rizobacter, the Company’s main operating subsidiary, for $7.6 million. The proceeds are equivalent to a significant portion of the short-term financial debt of the Company, implying a material strengthening of Bioceres’ balance sheet and cash positions, which reflect improved YoY financial results in the third quarter. The capital raised also provides the financial robustness required to support working capital needs in the coming quarters for the deployment of HB4® technology during the wheat and soybean crops seasons in the Southern Cone.
• In preparation for the commercial launch of HB4® drought-tolerant soybean varieties, the product was showcased at Expoagro 2020, attended by more than 100,000 South American growers. At the pavilion of Verdeca, the Company’s JV dedicated to this technology, the number of early adopters that registered for the next cycle of seed multiplication exceeded by nearly ten-fold the maximum acreage potentially available. Based on current demand levels and the harvesting of HB4 inventories underway, Bioceres is well positioned to increase the inventories into hundreds of thousands of acres during the next summer crop season in Argentina.
• The Company plans for HB4® technology in wheat remain unchanged, with up to 12,000 hectares reserved for planting during the upcoming winter campaign in the Southern Cone.
• In response to COVID-19 pandemic, Bioceres’ Business Continuity and Crisis committees were activated. These committees coordinated the steps necessary to comply with emerging regulations, to safeguard employees, customers and the communities in which we operate, as well as minimize any disruptions to the Company’s business operations.

Commenting on the Company’s results, Mr. Federico Trucco, Chief Executive Officer of Bioceres, said, “We operate in a privileged industry and this has never been as clear as during the COVID-19 epidemic. Despite some short-lived uncertainty in the farming community late in the quarter due to the pandemic, it is gratifying to report a nine percent year-on-year increase in revenue during the period. Deeper penetration of international markets, including Europe, drove much of this growth as we continued effectively executing our commercial strategy abroad. Looking ahead, we have secured capital via the March private placement to substantially ramp up inventories of HB4® seed varieties, which will be integrated with our proprietary biological seed treatments and launched under Bioceres’ EcoSoy™ and EcoWheat™ brands. In light of COVID-19’s global impact, the Company will keep China´s HB4 approval timeline under review, as we plan and coordinate efforts to ramp up inventories. And owing to the health and safety measures that we rapidly implemented throughout our organization, we remain fully operational as the summer crop harvest is underway in the Southern Cone.”

Mr. Enrique Lopez Lecube, Chief Financial Officer of Bioceres said, “We are pleased to have brought in capital to support the exciting growth opportunities that we see in front of us. The $50 million raised during the quarter significantly enhances our financial flexibility, allows us to optimize working capital financing, lowering financing costs. While our fiscal third quarter is seasonally slow, I was encouraged by continued growth in revenue and gross profit, confirming the resilience of our business. We intend to balance the deployment of the capital we raised in support of high return growth opportunities while remaining committed to preserving financial flexibility going forward.”

For earnings history and earnings-related data on Bioceres Crop Solutions Corp. (BIOX) click here.

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