Origin Agritech FY2026 Q1 Earnings Call - Management Doubles Down on Biotech and Sales Overhaul Amid Revenue Drop

Operator: Thank you for standing by, welcome to Origin Agritech First Half Fiscal Year 2026 Results Conference Call. Please note that today’s call is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce Matthew Abenante of Strategic Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Matthew Abenante, Strategic Investor Relations, Strategic Investor Relations: Thank you, operator, and thanks to all of you for joining us today on the Origin Agritech conference call. Joining us on the call today are Mr. Weibin Yan, Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Zheng James Chen, Chief Financial Officer, and Ms. Kate Lang, Director of Investor Relations. Before we begin, I would like to remind our listeners that any statements on this call that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements. Today’s call includes forward-looking statements that address expected future business and financial performance and financial conditions, and contain words such as expect, anticipate, intend, plan, believe, seek, will, would, target, and similar expressions and variations. Forward-looking statements address matters that are uncertain, and they are not guarantees of future performance and are based on assumptions and expectations which may not be realized.

They are based on management’s current expectations, assumptions, estimates, and projections about the company and the industry in which the company operates but involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company’s control. Some of the important factors that could cause the company’s actual results to differ materially from those discussed in forward-looking statements are failure to develop and market new products and optimally manage product life cycles, ability to respond to market acceptance, rules, regulations, and policies affecting our products, failure to appropriately manage process safety and product stewardship issues, changes in laws and regulations or political conditions, global economic and capital markets conditions such as inflation, interest, and currency exchange rates, business or supply disruptions, natural disasters and weather events and patterns, ability to protect and enforce the company’s intellectual property rights, and separation of underperforming or non-strategic assets or businesses.

The company undertakes no duty or obligation to publicly revise or update any forward-looking statements as a result of future developments or new information or otherwise, should circumstances change, except as otherwise required by securities and other applicable laws. Although the company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and actual results may differ materially from the anticipated results. You are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements contained herein and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by these cautionary statements. With that, I would like to turn the call over to our first speaker, Mr. Weibin Yan, Chief Executive Officer of Origin Agritech. Hello, Mr. Yan.

Weibin Yan, Chief Executive Officer, Origin Agritech Limited: Thank you, Matthew Abenante, good morning, good evening to everyone joining us from around the world. The 6 months ended March 31, 2026, represent the midpoint of the recovery phase of the 3-stage strategic plan we announced in November 2024. Up from 2027 to 2029. Return to industrial leadership from 2030 to 2032. When I addressed you on our fiscal year 2025 earnings call in February, I described the recovery work we had completed across our team building research capabilities, production facilities, and sales infrastructure. This half year of the fiscal year 2026 was about taking that rebuilt foundation and beginning to convert it into measurable commercial and scientific outcomes.

I want to take you through several operational areas where we made tangible progress during the period, and then Dr. Chen will walk you through what that progress looked like in our financial statements. In November 2025, we held a research and development conference that sharpened our focus on variety acquisitions, variety developments, and biotech commercialization. With the philosophy either be the first or be unique, we expanded breeding approach and test scales and have made very good progress since then. Our 2025 winter South China breeding work generated over 30,000 new test cross combinations, including those by the most breakthrough gene platforms. By using our Hi3 platform and the leaf-angle reduction gene licensed from China Agricultural University, we completed precision smart plant type improvements on the major varieties in the market to support our partners and ourselves to meet higher density trend in the industry.

During this period, we have restored the sales team to 36 professionals deployed across country, and we have rebuilt the regional presence, including, most importantly, a re-entry into North East China, where in September 2025, we hosted a variety showcase and technology seminar in Changchun, which drew more than 200 dealers and partners. In early March of the year, we held our 2026 annual marketing conference in Changsha, Hunan Province. The total conference convened our subsidiary general managers, regional marketing leadership, and key distribution partners. As a conclusion of that conference, we formally launched the Aoyun 2026 new variety promotion program, our integrated commercial campaigns for this marketing cycle, and signed KPI contracts with general managers of the six regional sales companies across China’s principal corn production regions.

With the Aoyun 2026 program and the performance contract we signed, every manager, every region, and every product line now has a very clear annual target and personally owns the outcome. To fill our product portfolio with the most competitive varieties, we have deepened collaborations with top breeders across ecological zones, introduced or jointly assembled over 10,000 new corn combinations in our test pipeline this year by working with more than 30 outstanding breeders in the industry. We now acquired a top-ranked variety, Zhengtai 889, which was jointly developed with the Hunan Agricultural University. Also, a CAU bred Zhongnongda 8538, which performs strongly in Northwest China. In November 2025, the Beijing Tongzhou District Market Supervision Administration approved the inclusion of GMO crop seed production license with our Beijing Origin Seed Limited in the business scope, as I have reported to you previously.

We have two leadership miles subsequent to the reporting period that I want to address directly. First, in March 2026, we welcomed Dr. Jian Zhang to our Board of Directors as an Independent Director. Dr. Zhang has 20 year above experience in global crop biotechnology industry with prior senior roles at the DuPont Pioneer, Syngenta, and BASF. His appointment brings world-class biotechnology and international commercialization experience to our Board at exactly the right time in our development. We are also happy to welcome back Dr. Zheng James Chen, retained as Chief Financial Officer. Many of you will know Dr. Chen from his prior service at Origin. Two tenures as CFO and one as CFO. Dr. Chen brings continuity, capital market sophistication, and a deep institutional understanding of the company.

I’m pleased to have him back on the executive team, and this is very helpful for me, and I will turn the call over to him in a moment to walk through the numbers. Finally, during the reporting period, we completed an investment agreement that included a direct equity investment by myself. I want our shareholders to know that my conviction in the path we are executing is reflected not just in my words on this call, also in my own financial state. With that, let me hand it over to Dr. Chen. Thank you.

Zheng James Chen, Chief Financial Officer, Origin Agritech Limited: Thank you, Mr. Yan, and hello everyone. It is great to be back addressing Origin Agritech shareholders. I will walk you through our financial results for the 6 months ended March 31, 2026, with comparisons to the prior year period. Total revenues for the first half of fiscal 2026 were 49.2 million RMB, or $7.1 million, compared with 72.3 million RMB in the first half of fiscal 2025, a decrease of approximately 31.9%. The decrease was mainly due to the strategic transition in the company’s product portfolio, as we are focusing more on the sales of new corn seed products and reducing the external seed tolling service. Gross profit was 5.5 million RMB, or $0.8 million in the first half of fiscal 2026, compared with 8.1 million RMB in the prior year period.

Total operating expenses for the first half of fiscal 2026 were RMB 18.4 million or $2.7 million US dollar, compared with RMB 32.8 million in the prior year period, a 43.9% reduction. Let me break that down. General and administrative expenses declined sharply from RMB 25 million to RMB 7.6 million, a 69.8% year-over-year reduction. That reduction reflects the operating discipline now embedded in the business following the leadership restructuring completed in December 2025 and the consolidation of corporate functions on the Beijing Origin. Selling and marketing expenses increased from RMB 2.6 million to RMB 5.1 million, up 93.3%. That increase is intentionally and entirely consistent with our strategy. It reflects the build-out of the 36-person sales organization and the field deployment of the Aoyun 2026 commercial campaign.

Research and development expenses were 5.7 million RMB compared with 5.2 million RMB in the prior year period, an increase of approximately 11.1%, reflecting continued investment in the Hi3 platform and the Shunfeng licensed gene editing program, and the new variety pipelines. Loss from operations for the first half of fiscal 2026 was 12.9 million RMB or $1.9 million, compared with a loss from operation of 24.7 million RMB in the prior year period, a reduction of 47.8% year-over-year. Net loss attributable to Origin Agritech Ltd. was 14.4 million RMB or $2.1 million, compared with a net loss of 25.6 million RMB in the prior year period, a 43.8% improvement. Basic and diluted net loss per share was 1.21 RMB or $0.17, compared with 3.55 RMB in the prior year period. Turning to the balance sheet.

As of March 31, 2026, the company had a cash and cash equivalent of RMB 13.4 million or $1.9 million, compared with RMB 15.9 million as of September 30, 2025. Inventories were RMB 24.8 million or $3.6 million, compared with RMB 14.4 million at fiscal year-end. That increase is seasonal, reflecting the inventory build into spring planting season. Short-term borrowings were RMB 9.5 million or $1.4 million, compared with RMB 8.0 million at fiscal year-end. Total liabilities were RMB 168.1 million or $24.3 million, compared with RMB 162.2 million at fiscal year-end. With that financial summary, I will turn the call back to Mr. Yan for closing remarks.

Weibin Yan, Chief Executive Officer, Origin Agritech Limited: Thank you. I want to leave you with 3 observations as we head into the second half of fiscal 2026 on the back half of the recovery phase. The operating leverage in the business is becoming visible in the numbers. A fundamental reduction in general administrative costs in a 1 year. With a stable gross margin and intentional investments in selling and marketing. It’s a financial signature of a company that has completed its restructuring and is now positioned to grow into its customer base. Our biotechnology platform is no longer a research story. It is becoming a commercial story. Hi3 is recognized externally. The GMO varieties are in trial or in the channel. The connective tissue between the laboratory and the customer is being built. The commercial cycle ahead is concrete and metered. The spring planting season is on the way. Aoyun 2026 is in the field.

Performance contracts are signed. The 36 professional sales team is deployed against a defined target. Our first half of fiscal 2027 will tell the market whether the work of the past 18 months is converting into commercial outcomes. I believe it will. Thank you.

Matthew Abenante, Strategic Investor Relations, Strategic Investor Relations: Thank you, Mr. Yan. Moreover, we did receive a number of questions in advance of today’s call. Ms. Kate Lang will now answer the questions submitted by investors. Hello, Kate.

Kate Lang, Director of Investor Relations, Origin Agritech Limited: Hello, Matthew. Thank you. Thank everyone who has submitted questions. Let’s hear about them.

Matthew Abenante, Strategic Investor Relations, Strategic Investor Relations: Our first question. China has been gradually expanding the geography and acreage for approved commercial GMO corn planting over the past 2 years. How does that policy direction affect Origin’s commercialization timeline? Is there a fiscal year in which investors should expect GMO-related revenue to become a visible line item?

Kate Lang, Director of Investor Relations, Origin Agritech Limited: The policy direction in China has been moving favorably over the past two years, with gradual expansion of the geography and acreage approved for commercial GMO corn planting. We are encouraged by that direction. However, I want to be careful now to characterize future regulatory decisions. Those are decisions the Ministry of Agriculture makes on its own timeline, and I am not in a position to forecast them. What I can speak to is Origin’s position relative to the policy window. We hold the biosafety certificate for BBL2-2. We have included GMO crop seed production within Beijing Origin’s business scope as of October 2025. We have two crop seed production and operation license in China. We have the Xinjiang processing facility restored to industry leading standards.

We have the Origin Marker Biological Breeding Service Consortium with the China Golden Marker Biotech, which gave us a licensing pathway that monetizes the biotechnology independent of our own seed sales. The way I would frame it for shareholders is this. There are not many seed companies in China that hold both the biotechnology credentials and the production and the distribution infrastructure to commercialize GMO corn at scale once the policy window fully opens. Origin is one of them.

Matthew Abenante, Strategic Investor Relations, Strategic Investor Relations: You have stated a goal of being one of the top three Chinese corn seed companies by 2030 to 2032. What is the specific competitive position that lets Origin take share from its bigger competitors over the next several years?

Kate Lang, Director of Investor Relations, Origin Agritech Limited: I appreciate the question. The path to a top 3 position by 2030 to 2032 is not a path of outscaling the incumbents on conventional terms. It is a path of competing on biotechnology credentials in the Chinese seed industry that, in my view, is entering a decade of consolidation that rewards biotechnology-credentialed players. Hi3 corn haploid induction gene editing recognized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in December 2025 as one of the top 10 major progresses in Chinese agricultural science. The Shunfeng BioTech patent license brings Cas-SF01 into our editing toolkit. In-house AI-assisted breeding is running against more than 200,000 germplasm resources. 2 crop seed production and operation license. GMO business scope at Beijing Origin. The BBL2-2 biosafety certificate. That is a biotechnology stack that the conventional scale incumbents cannot easily match. Because it is the product of a sustained, focused 20-year investment in next generation breeding.

Over the next decade, I believe the market will increasingly value biotechnology credentials, and Origin is well-positioned for that.

Matthew Abenante, Strategic Investor Relations, Strategic Investor Relations: Onto our last question. You have referenced AI-assisted breeding on prior calls and in press releases. Can you describe what that means operationally? What specific tasks are being run on AI? What, is there a measurable improvement in breeding cycle time, trait identification, or hit rate that you can point to?

Kate Lang, Director of Investor Relations, Origin Agritech Limited: It is a fair question. I want to answer it concretely because I know that AI can be an overused term in our industry and in the broader market. What we are running operationally is principally 3 things. First, genomic selection models that score potential crosses against the trait targets we are pursuing: yield, drought tolerance, leaf angle, lodging resistance, and growth period. Using our germplasm database of more than 200,000 corn resources, the model identifies the highest probability candidates before we commit field seeding capacity to evaluate them. Second, image-based phenotyping in our research stations that captures plant performance data at a density and a consistency that manual evaluation cannot match, and then feeds that data back into the selection models.

Third, prediction of optimal donor-recipient pairings for the Hi3 and Shunfeng licensed gene editing pipeline, which is where AI has the most direct impact on the speed of our biotechnology platform. The operational outcome we are working toward and beginning to see is a reduction in the number of field seedings required to validate a candidate variety. That translates into lower R&D cost per validated trait and a faster commercialization path.

Matthew Abenante, Strategic Investor Relations, Strategic Investor Relations: Thank you again to everyone for participating in today’s call. We look forward to providing additional updates in the near future. Goodbye.

Operator: We’d like to thank everybody for their participation on today’s conference call. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.