Cellectis announces an acceleration of its strategic refocusing on therapeutics and agrobusiness

Paris, France – December 5, 2013 – Cellectis SA (Alternext: ALCLS) is looking to accelerate its strategic refocusing on therapeutics and agrobusiness through a large scale reorganization.

Since 2010, a sudden and spectacular paradigm shift has been radically changing business models across the entire biotech industry.

Since the beginning of the year, sales of genome engineering tools for research, which represented a sizeable proportion of the Group’s revenues, has faced strong competitive pressure throughout the world and particularly in the North American market. This turnaround has led to a substantial operating loss for that division, which has had an impact on the Group’s overall earnings.  

At the same time, Cellectis’ therapeutics and agrobusiness activities have made significant strides forward in their development plan over the same period.

This situation leads Cellectis to look to adjusting its structure so as to meet its strategic targets to build value in the short and mid-term. Alongside an operating cost reduction program, the Company would focus its human and financial resources on its two strategic fields, while maintaining a service business that would be essentially dedicated to the bio-pharmaceutical industry.

Employee representatives will be made aware of and duly consulted on this plan that could result in a significant decrease in the Group’s workforce in France.

Once completed, aside from reducing operating costs by approximately €10 million on a full-year basis, this restructuring program should enable the Group to simplify its operations and become more competitive in its strategic growth fields.