Evogene reports 15% increase in revenue in 2012

Plant traits company, Evogenereports that revenues for the year ended 2012 were approximately US$17.1 million, representing an increase of approximately 15% compared to revenues of US$14.9 million for the same period in 2011.

This increase in revenues primarily relates to the November 2011 extension of its multi-year collaboration with Monsanto. At present, revenues consist primarily of research and licensing revenues generated under the company''s various collaboration agreements with seed companies.

Ofer Haviv, Evogene''s president and CEO, says, "We continue to maintain a strong financial position, with increasing revenues and cash equivalents at year-end of over US$55 million."

Haviv says that industry collaborations at year end were substantial collaborations with five of the seven leading seed companies in the world. These collaborations cover many important crops, including the four largest food and feed crops- wheat, corn, rice and soybean.

Haviv continued, "In addition, major efforts were undertaken during 2012 to position us for continued growth and diversification through the further expansion of our unique integrated plant genomics capabilities. We believe that these broadly applicable capabilities provide each of our four operating divisions - yield and abiotic stress, biotic stress, ag-chemicals and seed development - with significant competitive advantages to address critical worldwide food, feed and fuel needs."

Haviv explained, "Among our capabilities expansion achievements during the past year, included the completion of a pilot program for long non-coding RNA, launch of new computational platforms (including Gene2ProductTM), introduction of a new and unique model plant system (Brachypodium), and initial use of a new automated data collection and analysis platform (Phenomix)."

Research and discovery activities continued on track under its on-going collaborations with world leading seed companies. Research & Development expenses for 2012 were US$7.3 million, compared with US$6.4 million for the same period in 2011. This increase in R&D expenses relates mainly to development of new computational genomics and validation technologies in support of its four operating divisions and a significant increase in the company''s R&D personnel.

Activities initiated for our ag-chemicals division, focusing on finding new innovative chemical solutions for herbicides and crop enhancers.

Evogene has also made headway with infrastructure, including the completion of a pilot programme to develop and validate a platform for identification of long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) related genes. Evogene is now validating a new pool of lncRNA related genes under various growth conditions.

It established a new platform enabling the advanced collection, storage and integrated analysis of enormous quantities of phenotypic data directly from the field. It also launched a new and advanced computational genomics technologies for improving plant performances: ATHLETE^a？￠ 4.0, a new version of our gene discovery technology; and Gene2Product^a？￠ 1.0, an integrated platform for optimizing gene function in target crops and increasing the probability of success of biotechnology seed products.

2012 also saw the disclosure and initial use of Brachypodium, its monocot model plant validation system for evaluation of genes for monocot crops, such as wheat, corn and rice. The validation system is utilized by Evogene for evaluation of genes discovered by us, and in certain case, those discovered by our partners.

It also completed an expansion programme of over 50% in the company''s gene validation & plant growth capacity, including construction of new molecular and tissue culture laboratories and substantial expansion of its greenhouse facilities.