Boston Millennia Partners Sell Portfolio Co. Athenix to Bayer CropScience for $400M

BOSTON -- Boston Millennia Partners (BMP II) is pleased to announce that its portfolio company, Athenix Corporation, has been acquired by Bayer CropScience for $400 million. This is the second BMP II portfolio company sold for a 10X return.

Dana Callow, Managing General Partner at Boston Millennia Partners said, "This high value sale was the result of Athenix's unique intellectual property, as well as superior execution of several development programs by its management team. We congratulate Athenix's Chief Executive, Michael Koziel, and his entire team for achieving this outstanding result."

Athenix discovers and develops proprietary productivity-enhancing crop traits for corn, soybean and other commercial crops. The management team spun out of DuPont Pioneer in 2001 and leveraged decades of experience in trait discovery to build a platform technology that created one of the largest libraries of agronomic traits in the industry. By making the strategic decision to establish partnerships with other industry participants, including DuPont, Syngenta, Monsanto, and others, Athenix was able to accelerate development, access distribution, build its balance sheet and achieve visibility with potential purchasers such as Bayer.

"Mike and his management team combined strong science and sound strategy to achieve this great result," said Rob Jevon, Boston Millennia Partner and Director of Athenix from inception of Millennia's Series A investment in Athenix. "BMP is proud to have been part of the Athenix story, whose products will provide significant benefits to farmers and consumers. We wish Mike and his team continued success with Bayer."

About Athenix

Athenix, founded in 2001, is a leading biotechnology company that develops novel products and technologies for agricultural and industrial applications. Athenix has established an outstanding intellectual property portfolio and market access ability around enhanced plants, microbes, genes, enzymes, and processes with emphasis on two major markets: 1) novel agricultural traits for growers such as insect resistance, nematode resistance, herbicide tolerance, and their use for the crop production industry; and 2) the discovery of genes and proteins for use in the sustainable chemical industry. For more information visit www.athenixcorp.com.

About Boston Millennia Partners

Boston Millennia Partners provides private equity financing to high growth companies in the healthcare, life sciences and business sciences sectors industry. Our team brings over one hundred years of combined private equity experience to the investment process. Our broad experience, combined with expertise in finance; operations; engineering; life sciences research and development; partnering with pharmaceutical companies; business development; executive recruiting; and law provides significant value to the companies in which we invest. Since the early 1980's, members of our team have managed seven venture capital partnerships with very successful results for our investors and our entrepreneurs. The growth and success of our portfolio companies have, in turn, allowed us to grow and expand our capital base to over $700 million under management.