I keep going back to the LOI from Visolis that stated “Investment in BioAmber, Inc”. The Visolis Transaction was mentioned early in the monitor reports but it completely changed to the LCY Transaction for the tangible assets by the time the CCAA ended. Odd. Let’s look at some connections.
DSM owns the only fermentation plant (formerly Amyris) in Brazil that I know.
Reverdia (DSM/Roquette JV) and Visolis (Visolis BV created in Feb 2018) shares the same address/space at the Galeen Research Campus in the Netherlands. DSM then dissolves Reverdia last year in April 2019 with intentions to be exclusive licensor of that yeast technology.
President of Visolis/Visolis BV Deepak Dugar worked at DSM early in his career. The VP of Business Development at Visolis/BV is Erik Rutten, former Sr Investment Manager and VP of R&D at DSM where he spent 24 years. Rutten’s brother, who has patents with DSM, is a director at Visolis too. Jay Keasling, founder of Amyris, is also a Sr. Advisor for Visolis.
So in addition to the fact that Cargill’s royalties would skyrocket as new plants come online, the growing partnership between Visolis and DSM is leveraged to achieve better terms which points to Visolis and LCY (LCY Biosciences) utilizing DSM’s low pH yeast moving forward.
Recall that Bioamber and Reverdia(DSM) had a good relationship as evident by the non-assert agreement. During the CCAA, LCY Biosciences requested to be assigned the right to use the technology. It was granted pursuant to the STA agreement. Hence, why the GFive letter said the outstanding royalties were to be paid.
In my opinion, it appears DSM could end up taking an initial equity investment in Visolis. Of course we are waiting for the shares to be bought out or a merger to occur first. DSM did something very similar with Amyris in 2017 when they purchased 12% shareholding for US$50 million. DSM later bought Amyris Brasil Ltd, the entity that owns and operates the fermentation plant for US$96 million + a future value share. Sarnia is 2.5x larger by comparison.
I believe it’s just a matter of time before a transaction involving our shares is announced. Of course the first step is to have the class action closed. Let’s look how BIOAQ can act like a SPAC - special purpose acquisition company.
How does Visolis get to market right now? Traditional way is an IPO. You do a roadshow, put together a prospectus/, you do a roadshow on wall street, etc. The bank will say, ok this is what we think we can take you to market at.
Atypical way for Visolis to go public is via a reverse merger. I will admit they are usually pro-cyclical, meaning they occur more frequently at the end of big bull markets. Everyone that’s informed knows the music is going to stop pretty soon, so it’s good to get to the market ASAP (look at the ipo activity this year with Nikola, Zoom Info, Progenity, Vroom, etc). Visolis can do a reverse merger into Bioamber, acquire the remaining assets and be listed quickly and cheaply. Currently, hedge funds and private equity are focusing on ESG - Environmental, Social & Governance qualified investments. The timing is perfect for Visolis to go public.
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