Ghent, Belgium
27 August 2012

Devgen nv (Euronext Brussels: DEVG), the agro-biotech company that shapes the field of hybrid rice in India and Southeast Asia and innovates in crop protection technologies, today provides a business update and its financial results for the first half of 2012.

Business highlights

• Devgen and Syngenta signed a six-year agreement to develop and commercialize sprayable RNAi-based crop protection products. The new agreement generates committed funding for Devgen of more than € 50 million, including an upfront payment of € 22 million.
• The development of the next generation hybrid rice continued to progress with seed production research and agronomic performance trials ongoing in India and the Philippines.
• Devgen’s core activities in hybrid rice seed showed excellent performance (+37% in sales) in H1 2012. This solid growth is driven both by existing and newly marketed hybrid seeds with higher production efficiency for the company and farmers.
• Sorghum seed sales performed well during H1, while lower pearl millet seed sales are expected to be mostly compensated for in Q3 as farmers are buying their seeds when the Monsoon rains arrive.
• Cotton seed sales declined due to general market conditions, but with limited impact on the bottom line as the company only generates a distribution margin without any inventory risk.
• Devgen obtained regulatory approval of its nematicide Devguard® in South Africa for use on potatoes.

Full report

Website: http://www.devgen.com

Published: August 27, 2012