Amyris & NIKKOL GROUP Create Leading Cosmetics Ingredient Joint Venture

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Dec. 13, 2016 -- Amyris, Inc. (Nasdaq:AMRS), the industrial bioscience company, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to establish a cosmetic ingredients joint venture with NIKKOL GROUP (“NIKKOL”), a leading Japanese cosmetic specialty chemical provider. NIKKOL is purchasing 50% of the Amyris Neossance business for up to $20 million in total. Amyris will receive $10 million of the purchase price upfront and the remaining $10 million is structured as an earn out over the first three years of the joint venture operation.

“NIKKOL is an ideal partner for this joint venture and is the leading channel partner for our squalane business,” said John Melo, Amyris President and CEO. “This agreement is another key step among several in our stated plan to build greater value for our business, and ensure access to partner-driven growth capital while positioning the company to significantly expand product sales. This aligns with our strategy of focusing our business on partnering with the world’s leading companies to accelerate our product sales growth while lowering our operating costs. We expect squalane sales through to end customers to continue growing at better than 50% annually while our expenses will be reduced by over $1.5 million annually as a result of this partnership.”

“NIKKOL has been involved in the sugarcane-based squalane business since the product’s inception by Amyris and we believe this is an opportune time to join forces,” said Shizuo Ukaji, President & CEO of Nikko Chemicals Co., Ltd. in NIKKOL. “By working together, we believe the additional financial, marketing, innovation, and business development synergies will lead to a significant expansion in market applications.”

NIKKOL has been a long-term distributor of Amyris’s cosmetic ingredients in the Japanese market and a key partner of Amyris in helping grow the business. As a world leader in personal care ingredients segment, it is anticipated that NIKKOL’s participation in the joint venture will support even greater sales growth while further establishing a market leadership position.

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, and pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals. More information about the company is available at www.amyris.com.

About NIKKOL GROUP

NIKKOL GROUP (“NIKKOL”) is a specialty chemical company known as one of the world’s leaders in the cosmetic ingredient industry. NIKKOL includes seven core companies for sales, R&D, manufacturing, safety and efficacy evaluation based on colloid chemical and skin science in Japan and overseas. NIKKOL has focused its business on the core strategy “Green, Clean, Sustainable” to achieve its business success. With 70 years’ experience and the concept of “One-Stop Services”, NIKKOL has been supporting its customers through variety of NIKKOL brand products, innovative formulation, tailor-made consultation, and rigorous safety and efficacy evaluation. More information about the company is available at www.nikkol.co.jp/en/. 

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements, and any statements 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 achievement of any earn-out payments, realization of any anticipated expense reduction or sales growth, or expansion of market applications 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 quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed on November 9, 2016. 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 Neossance are trademarks or registered trademarks of Amyris, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Contact:
Peter DeNardo
Director, Investor Relations and Corporate Communications
Amyris, Inc. 
+1 (510) 740-7481
[email protected]
[email protected]