Cibus Ltd. filed a Form S-1 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding its initial public offering. No pricing details were mentioned in the filing but the offering is valued up to $100 million. The company intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol CBUS.
The underwriters for the offering are Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch, and Piper Jaffray.
This is a biotechnology company using advanced technologies to develop desirable plant traits for the global seed industry. Founded in 2001, Cibus has developed and is commercializing a proprietary and highly differentiated gene-editing technology, referred to as the Rapid Trait Development System (RTDS).
RTDS enables the firm efficiently to introduce customizable, specific and predictable value-enhancing traits into plants and microorganisms. This ability precisely to edit plant genes without the integration of foreign genetic material, or recombinant DNA, establishes its technology as truly non-transgenic, both in process and product, and is distinguishing from competitors.
This gene-editing approach accelerates the processes that underlie natural breeding and provides a versatile and low-cost means to increase crop yields for farmers, to develop healthier food for consumers, and to reduce waste for a sustainable agricultural ecosystem. The firm has taken care responsibly to improve characteristics in plants as its trait products are indistinguishable from those that could occur in nature.
Management believes RTDS can transform the global seed industry by applying advanced trait development to a broader range of crops and geographies than has previously been targeted, enabling it to meet demands across the agricultural value chain—from farmers seeking weed control and disease tolerance options for greater crop yields, to processors looking to improve ease of handling and to minimize waste, to retail consumers increasingly demanding foods that are healthier, more nutritious and safer.
In the filing the firm described its finances:
For the nine months ended September 30, 2018 and the year ended December 31, 2017, we generated $2.6 million and $2.7 million in revenue and our net loss was $30.1 million and $40.9 million, respectively. These results reflect that we currently have only one commercialized product, SU Canola, which is available in the United States and, on a limited basis, in Canada.
Cibus intends to use the net proceeds from this offering to further fund its research and development as well as to expand its sales and marketing. The remainder will be used for working capital and general corporate purposes.
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