YIELD10 BIOSCIENCE,INC. (NASDAQ:YTEN) Files An 8-K Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement

0

YIELD10 BIOSCIENCE,INC. (NASDAQ:YTEN) Files An 8-K Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement
Item 1.01 Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement

On July3, 2017, Yield10 Bioscience,Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement (the “Purchase Agreement”) with certain investors named therein (the “Investors”), including Jack W. Schuler, an existing stockholder, and entities affiliated with him, to which the Company agreed to issue and sell, in a registered public offering by the Company directly to the Investors (the “Public Offering”), an aggregate of 570,784 shares (the “Shares”) of common stock, par value $0.01 per share, of the Company (“Common Stock”), at an offering price of $4.00 per share for gross proceeds of approximately $2.3 million before deducting the placement agent fee and related offering expenses. The Shares were offered by the Company to a registration statement on FormS-3 (File No.333-217051), which was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Commission”) on March30, 2017 and was declared effective by the Commission on April12, 2017 (the “Registration Statement”).

In a concurrent private placement (the “Private Placement” and together with the Public Offering, the “Offerings”), the Company agreed to issue to the Investors who participated in the Public Offering warrants (the “Warrants” and collectively with the Shares, the “Securities”) exercisable for one share of Common Stock for each Share purchased in the Offering for an aggregate of 570,784 shares of Common Stock at an exercise price of $5.04 per share. Each Warrant will be exercisable beginning on the six-month anniversary of the date of its issuance and will expire six years from the date it becomes exercisable. If at any time after the six-month anniversary of the date of issuance there is no effective registration statement registering, or no current prospectus available for, the resale of the shares of Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of the Warrants, then the holders have the right to exercise the Warrants on a cashless basis at such time. Subject to limited exceptions, a holder of a Warrant, other than Mr.Schuler and entities affiliated with him, will not have the right to exercise any portion of its warrants if the holder, together with its affiliates, would beneficially own in excess of 4.99% of the number of shares of Common Stock outstanding immediately after giving effect to such exercise (the “Beneficial Ownership Limitation”); provided, however, that upon 61 days’ prior notice to the Company, the holder may increase or decrease the Beneficial Ownership Limitation, provided further that in no event shall the Beneficial Ownership Limitation exceed 9.99%. Under certain circumstances, the Company has the right to call for cancellation all or any portion of each Warrant for which a notice of exercise has not yet been delivered for consideration equal to $0.001 per share of Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of the Warrant. The call right must be exercised ratably among the holders based on each holder’s initial purchase of Warrants, and it may be invoked by the Company at any time after the date on which the Warrants become exercisable if (i)the volume weighted average price for each of twenty consecutive trading days (such period commencing after the date on which the Warrants become exercisable and referred to as the measurement period) exceeds $10.00 (subject to adjustment for forward and reverse stock splits, recapitalizations, stock dividends and the like after the issuance date), (ii)the average daily volume for such measurement period exceeds $125,000 per trading day, (iii)the holder is not in possession of any information that constitutes, or might constitute, material non-public information which was provided by the Company and (iv)either (a)there is an effective registration statement to which the holder is permitted to utilize the prospectus thereunder to resell all of the shares of Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of the Warrant or (b)all of the shares of Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of the Warrant may be sold to Rule144 under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, without the requirement for the Company to be in compliance with the current public information required under Rule144 and without volume or manner-of-sale restrictions. The Company must deliver an irrevocable written notice to a holder to invoke the call right and the holder will have ten trading days to exercise its Warrant prior to cancellation.

The Warrants and the shares of our Common Stock issuable upon the exercise of the Warrants are not being registered under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), were not offered to the Registration Statement and were offered to the exemption provided in Section4(a)(2)under the Securities Act, and Rule506(b)promulgated thereunder.

On July3, 2017, the Company entered into a Placement Agency Agreement (the “Placement Agency Agreement”) with Ladenburg Thalmann& Co. Inc., (“Ladenburg” or the “Placement Agent”) to which the Company engaged Ladenburg as the sole placement agent in connection with the Offerings. The Placement Agent agreed to use its reasonable best efforts to arrange for the sale of the Securities. The Company agreed to pay the Placement Agent a placement agent fee in cash equal to 8% of the gross proceeds from the sale of the Securities, with the fee reduced to 3% for gross cash consideration paid by certain investors listed on Annex A to the Placement Agency

Agreement, including Mr.Schuler and entities affiliated with him. The Placement Agency Agreement also contains representations, warranties, indemnification and other provisions customary for transactions of this nature.

The foregoing summaries of the Purchase Agreement, the Warrants and the Placement Agency Agreement do not purport to be complete and are subject to, and qualified in their entirety by, such documents attached as Exhibits 10.1, 4.1 and 1.1, respectively, to this Current Report on Form8-K, which are incorporated herein by reference.

This Current Report on Form8-K does not constitute an offer to sell any securities or a solicitation of an offer to buy any securities, nor shall there be any sale of any securities in any state or jurisdiction in which such an offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or jurisdiction.

On July3, 2017, the Company issued a press release announcing the Offerings. A copy of the press release is attached as Exhibit99.1 to this Current Report on Form8-K. A copy of the opinion of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. relating to the legality of the issuance and sale of the Shares is attached as Exhibit5.1 hereto.

Item 3.02. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities.

The information contained in Item 1.01 of this Current Report on Form8-K in relation to the Warrants and the shares of our Common Stock issuable upon the exercise thereof is incorporated herein by reference in this Item 3.02.

Item 9.01. Financial Statements and Exhibits.

(d)Exhibits

ExhibitNo.

Description

1.1

Placement Agency Agreement dated as of July3, 2017, by and between Yield10 Bioscience,Inc. and Ladenburg Thalmann& Co. Inc.

4.1

Formof Investor Warrant.

5.1

Opinion of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

10.1

Formof Securities Purchase Agreement, dated as of July3, 2017, by and among Yield10 Bioscience,Inc. and the Investors.

23.1

Consent of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. (included in Exhibit5.1).

99.1

Press Release of Yield10 Bioscience,Inc. dated July3, 2017.


YIELD10 BIOSCIENCE, INC. Exhibit
EX-1.1 2 a17-16039_3ex1d1.htm EX-1.1 Exhibit 1.1   PLACEMENT AGENCY AGREEMENT   July 3,…
To view the full exhibit click here

About YIELD10 BIOSCIENCE,INC. (NASDAQ:YTEN)

Yield10 Bioscience, Inc., formerly Metabolix, Inc., is an agricultural bioscience company. The Company is focused on developing disruptive technologies for step-change improvements in crop yield for food and feed crops to enhance global food security. By working on new approaches to improve fundamental elements of plant photosynthetic efficiency and optimizing carbon metabolism to direct more carbon to seed production, the Company is advancing several yield traits it has developed in crops, such as Camelina, canola, soybean and corn. The Company concentrates on technologies that enables it to improve carbon dioxide fixation efficiency in photosynthesis and its direction to and conversion into plant matter. The Company has an additional agricultural science facility with greenhouses in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.