A €6m financing agreement with the French government follows the standby equity facility established recently with Soc Gen. Taken together with improved corporate cash conservation, they place Deinove in a much stronger financial position to pursue commercial partnership agreements. Such agreements, in either green chemistry or biofuels, would provide significant additional impetus to the share price.
Deinove’s green chemistry programme, Deinochem, will receive almost €6m in the form of repayable advances from the French government under the terms of a three-and-a-half year programme (timing of receipts not disclosed). Within Deinochem it is the isoprenoid project, which includes products such as isoprene and carotenoids used notably in the speciality chemicals, fragrance and animal feed industries, which will receive the grant.
The funding agreement is a positive development, provides external validation of Deinove’s capabilities and follows the standby equity facility established recently with Société Générale. Under the facility’s terms, Soc Gen has committed to subscribe to capital increases (over three years) up to a total of 450,000 shares.
Despite the improved cash conservation and the two recent substantial funding announcements, we would expect Deinove to pursue further funding opportunities in 2014. Achieving further milestones in the Deinol (biofuels) project and commercial agreements in biofuels and green chemistry would provide significant additional share price impetus.