UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
WASHINGTON, DC 20549
FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 OR 15(d) of The Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report (Date of earliest event reported) January 15, 2020
YIELD10 BIOSCIENCE, INC.
(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)
DELAWARE
(State or Other Jurisdiction of Incorporation)
001-33133 | 04-3158289 | |
(Commission File Number) | (IRS Employer Identification No.) | |
19 Presidential Way, Woburn, Massachusetts | 01801 | |
(Address of Principal Executive Offices) | (Zip Code) | |
(617) 583-1700
(Registrant’s Telephone Number, Including Area Code)
(Former Name or Former Address, if Changed Since Last Report)
Check the appropriate box below if the Form 8-K filing is intended to simultaneously satisfy the filing obligation of the registrant under any of the following provisions ( see General Instruction A.2. below):
o Written communications pursuant to Rule 425 under the Securities Act (17 CFR 230.425)
o Soliciting material pursuant to Rule 14a-12 under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14a-12)
o Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 14d-2(b) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.14d-2(b))
o Pre-commencement communications pursuant to Rule 13e-4(c) under the Exchange Act (17 CFR 240.13e-4(c)).
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:
Title of each class | Trading Symbol(s) | Name of each exchange on which registered |
Common Stock | YTEN | The Nasdaq Capital Market |
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933 (17 CFR §230.405) or Rule 12b-2 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (17 CFR §240.12b-2).
Emerging growth company o
If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. o
Item 5.03 Amendments to Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws; Change in Fiscal Year.
On January 15, 2020, Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (the “Company”) filed a Certificate of Amendment to its Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, a copy of which is attached hereto as Exhibit 3.1 and incorporated herein by reference, with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware. The Certificate of Amendment, effective as of January 15, 2020, effects a reverse stock split of the Company’s common stock at a ratio of 1-for-40.
As previously reported in a Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 9, 2020, our stockholders approved an amendment to our Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to effect a reverse stock split of our common stock, at a ratio in the range of 1-for-20 to 1-for-50. On January 9, 2020, the Company’s Board of Directors selected a 1-for-40 reverse stock split ratio by unanimous written consent and authorized the implementation of the reverse stock split.
As a result of the reverse stock split, every 40 shares of our pre-reverse split common stock will be combined and reclassified into one share of our common stock. No fractional shares will be issued in connection with the reverse stock split. Stockholders who otherwise would be entitled to receive a fractional share in connection with the reverse stock split will receive a cash payment in lieu thereof.
Our transfer agent, American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, is acting as exchange agent for the reverse stock split.
On January 15, 2020, we issued a press release with respect to the reverse stock split described above, a copy of which is being filed as Exhibit 99.1 to this Form 8-K and is incorporated herein by reference.
Item 9.01 Financial Statements and Exhibits.
(d) Exhibits.
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
YIELD10 BIOSCIENCE, INC. | ||
Date: January 15, 2020 | By: | /s/ Oliver P. Peoples |
Oliver P. Peoples | ||
President & Chief Executive Officer | ||
Exhibit 3.1
CERTIFICATE OF AMENDMENT TO EFFECT REVERSE STOCK SPLIT
Pursuant to Section 242 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, Yield10 Bioscience, Inc., a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Delaware (the “Corporation”), does hereby certify as follows:
1.The name of the Corporation is Yield10 Bioscience, Inc.
2.The Board of Directors of the Corporation has duly adopted a resolution pursuant to Section 242 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware setting forth a proposed amendment to the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of the Corporation and declaring said amendment to be advisable. The requisite stockholders of the Corporation have duly approved said proposed amendment in accordance with Section 242 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware. The amendment amends the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation of the Corporation as follows:
3.The Corporation’s Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, as amended, is hereby further amended by adding the following after the end of the first paragraph of Article IV:
“Upon effectiveness of this Certificate of Amendment (the “Effective Time”), the shares of Common Stock issued and outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time and the shares of Common Stock issued and held in the treasury of the Corporation immediately prior to the Effective Time are reclassified into a smaller number of shares such that each forty (40) shares of issued Common Stock immediately prior to the Effective Time is reclassified into one (1) share of Common Stock. Notwithstanding the immediately preceding sentence, no fractional shares shall be issued as a result of the reverse stock split. Instead, any stockholder who would otherwise be entitled to a fractional share of our Common Stock as a result of the reclassification shall be entitled to receive a cash payment equal to the product of such resulting fractional interest in one share of our Common Stock multiplied by the closing trading price of our Common Stock on the trading day immediately preceding the effective date of the reverse stock split. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Corporation shall not be obliged to issue certificates evidencing the shares of Common Stock outstanding as a result of the reverse stock split or cash in lieu of fractional shares, if any, unless and until the certificates evidencing the shares held by a holder prior to the reverse stock split are either delivered to the Corporation or its transfer agent, or the holder notifies the Corporation or its transfer agent that such certificates have been lost, stolen or destroyed and executes an agreement satisfactory to the Corporation to indemnify the Corporation from any loss incurred by it in connection with such certificates.
Each stock certificate that, immediately prior to the Effective Time, represented shares of Common Stock that were issued and outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time shall, from and after the Effective Time, automatically and without the necessity of presenting the same for exchange, represent the number of whole shares of Common Stock
after the Effective Time into which the shares of Common Stock formerly represented by such certificate shall have been reclassified (as well as the right to receive a cash payment in lieu of a fractional share of Common Stock), provided, however, that each person of record holding a certificate that represented shares of Common Stock that were issued and outstanding immediately prior to the Effective Time shall receive, upon surrender of such certificate, a new certificate evidencing and representing the number of whole shares of Common Stock after the Effective Time into which the shares of Common Stock formerly represented by such certificate shall have been reclassified (including the right to receive a cash payment in lieu of a fractional share of Common Stock).”
4.The Amendment of the Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation, as amended, herein certified has been duly adopted in accordance with the provisions of Section 242 of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware.
5.This Certificate of Amendment shall be effective on January 15, 2020 at 5:00 p.m., Eastern Time.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Corporation has caused this Certificate of Amendment to be signed by its duly authorized officer on this 15th day of January 2020.
YIELD10 BIOSCIENCE, INC. | ||
By: | /s/ Oliver P. Peoples | |
Oliver P. Peoples | ||
President & Chief Executive Officer | ||
Exhibit 99.1
Yield10 Bioscience Announces 1-for-40 Reverse Stock Split
WOBURN, Mass. - January 15, 2020 - Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq:YTEN), an agricultural bioscience company that uses its “Trait Factory” to develop high value seed traits for the agriculture and food industries, today announced that it will effect a 1-for-40 reverse stock split of its common stock, following stockholder approval of the reverse stock split at the Company's special stockholders meeting held on January 9, 2020. The 1-for-40 reverse stock split will be effective as of the close of business on Wednesday, January 15, 2020 and the Company's common stock will begin trading on a split-adjusted basis on Thursday, January 16, 2020.
The reverse stock split will reduce the number of shares of the Company’s common stock currently outstanding from 39,986,201 shares to 999,655 shares. Further, upon the effectiveness of the reverse stock split, the Series B preferred stock issued by the Company in its November 2019 private placement will automatically be converted into 718,750 shares of common stock, resulting in a total of approximately 1,718,405 outstanding shares of common stock.
Proportional adjustments will be made to the Company’s outstanding stock options, warrants and restricted stock units and to the number of shares issued and issuable under the Company's equity compensation plans. The number of authorized shares of the Company's common stock will remain 60 million shares. In addition, the warrants to purchase common stock issued in the November 2019 private placement are now exercisable.
The reverse stock split is intended to increase the market price per share of the Company’s common stock to allow the Company to maintain the listing of its common stock on The Nasdaq Capital Market. The Company's common stock will continue to trade on The Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol "YTEN." The new CUSIP number for the common stock following the reverse stock split will be 98585K862.
Information for Stockholders
Upon the effectiveness of the reverse stock split, each forty (40) shares of the Company's issued and outstanding common stock will be automatically combined and converted into one issued and outstanding share of common stock, par value $0.01 per share. The reverse stock split will not modify the rights or preferences of the common stock. No fractional shares of common stock will be issued as a result of the reverse split. Instead, stockholders who otherwise would be entitled to receive fractional shares will be entitled to receive cash in an amount equal to the product obtained by multiplying (i) the closing price of Yield10 common stock on January 15, 2020, by (ii) the number of shares of common stock held by the stockholder that would otherwise have been exchanged for such fractional share interest.
The Company's transfer agent, American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC, will act as its exchange agent for the reverse stock split. Registered stockholders holding pre-split shares of the Company’s common stock are not required to take any action to receive post-split shares. Stockholders owning shares via a broker or other nominee will have their positions automatically adjusted to reflect the reverse stock split, subject to brokers' particular processes, and will not be required to take any action in connection with the reverse stock split. American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, LLC can be reached at (877) 248-6417 or (718) 921-8317.
Additional information about the reverse stock split can be found in the Company's definitive proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on December 5, 2019, a copy of which is available at www.sec.gov or at www.yield10bio.com under the SEC Filings tab located on the Investors page.
About Yield10 Bioscience
Yield10 Bioscience, Inc. is an agricultural bioscience company which uses its “Trait Factory” to develop high value seed traits for the agriculture and food industries to achieve step-change improvements in crop yield to enhance global food security and develop specialty crop products. Yield10 has an extensive track record of innovation based around optimizing the flow of carbon in living systems. The “Trait Factory” has two components: the “GRAIN” computational modeling platform, which is used to identify specific gene changes designed to improve crop performance, and the deployment of those changes into crops using genome-editing or traditional agricultural biotechnology approaches. The purpose of the “Trait Factory” is to engineer precise alterations to gene activity and the flow of carbon in plants to produce higher yields with lower inputs of land, water or fertilizer. Yield10 is advancing several yield traits it has developed in crops such as canola, soybean and corn. Yield10 is headquartered in Woburn, MA and has an Oilseeds Center of Excellence in Saskatoon, Canada.
For more information about the company, please visit www.yield10bio.com.
(YTEN-G)
Safe Harbor for Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Investors are cautioned that statements in this press release which are not strictly historical, including, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's expectations for the impact of the reverse split on the market price of the Company’s stock and the Company’s ability to regain compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements, constitute forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated, including the risks and uncertainties detailed in Yield10 Bioscience's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Yield10 assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the matters described herein.
Contacts:
Yield10 Bioscience:
Lynne H. Brum, (617) 682-4693, LBrum@yield10bio.com
Investor Relations:
Bret Shapiro, 561-479-8566, brets@coreir.com
Managing Director, CORE IR
Media Inquiries:
Eric Fischgrund, eric@fischtankpr.com
FischTank Marketing and PR