AMSTERDAM, 24 March 2021, 07:00 CET – Avantium N.V. (Euronext Amsterdam and Brussels: AVTX), a leading technology company in renewable chemistry, today reports its 2020 full-year results.

Key business progress during 2020

Avantium Renewable Polymers made progress towards a Final Investment Decision (FID) concerning the construction of the planned FDCA (furandicarboxylic acid) flagship plant, but not all conditions for a positive FID were met by the end of 2020:
Avantium announced this morning that to date it has signed conditional offtake agreements with specialty chemical company Toyobo (Japan), specialty polyester film producer Terphane (USA), the beverage bottling company Refresco (Netherlands), and a major global food & beverage brand owner, representing in total 30% of the FDCA flagship plant capacity;
Avantium Renewable Chemistries achieved the successful start-up and commissioning of the plantMEG™ (mono-ethylene glycol) demonstration plant;
The COVID-19 pandemic delayed on-site projects with customers and impacted new system orders for Avantium Catalysis; the Catalysis contract research services business did, however, grow during the period.
Key financial developments during 2020

Total Revenues and Other Income increased to €18.3 million (FY 2019: €18.0 million):
Total revenues decreased by 29% to €9.9 million (FY 2019: €13.8 million), mainly due to the impact of COVID-19 on Avantium Catalysis;
Other Income increased by 99% to €8.4 million (FY 2019: €4.2 million), as a result of higher grant income;
Net operating expenses were €33.2 million in 2020 (FY 2019: €35.1 million);
Cash at 31 December 2020 was €26.6 million (31 December 2019: €45.4 million):
The reduced 2020 cash outflow of €18.8 million was a substantial reduction compared to the previous year (2019: €37.8 million), primarily due to the one-off payment in 2019 of €17.4 million to regain full ownership of Avantium Renewable Polymers;
Loss for the period amounted to €22.8 million (FY 2019: €23.5 million).

Tom van Aken, CEO of Avantium commented: “2020 should have been the year in which Avantium celebrated its 20th anniversary and a year in which we planned to achieve the high ambitions set in 2019. However, with the outbreak of COVID-19 at the beginning of 2020, the year was not one of festivities but a year of considerable challenges instead. I am proud of our employees and the way we have handled the challenges caused by the crisis. Our in-house programmes continued to flourish in 2020. In contrast, some of our anticipated external progress was affected by COVID-19, and some of our objectives for 2020 were delayed. We remain fully committed to demonstrating the commercial potential of our technologies to the world and we will continue to work diligently to achieve our goals in 2021.”


Business overview
Avantium Renewable Polymers
In 2020, Avantium Renewable Polymers was fully focused on reaching a positive FID in relation to
the construction of a 5-kilotonnes FDCA flagship plant, planned to be built in Delfzijl, the
Netherlands. Avantium had identified three key conditions required for a positive FID: (i) securing
€150 million financing (excluding 20% contingency), (ii) obtaining offtake commitments for 50% of
the capacity of the flagship plant, and (iii) finalising the engineering and establishing the supply
chain. Avantium Renewable Polymers had earlier anticipated that it would be in a position to make
the FID by the end of 2020. While progress was made during the year, the key conditions were not
met by the end of 2020. Due in part to the global COVID-19 crisis, negotiations with financial,
commercial, and other strategic partners have taken longer than previously foreseen.
On the financing side, Avantium made advances on securing equity investments for the project. In
January 2021, Avantium signed a term sheet with leading engineering company Worley – already
involved in the engineering of the FDCA flagship plant - to make a €10 million equity investment in
Avantium Renewable Polymers. This term sheet is structured as an investment in kind and a risksharing mechanism over the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) phase of the FDCA
flagship plant. Furthermore, the Groningen consortium1 signed a term sheet for a €20 million equity
investment in Avantium Renewable Polymers for the construction of the FDCA flagship plant.
Additionally, the Groningen consortium intends to provide Avantium Renewable Polymers with €2.5
million of subordinated debt and in December 2020, the National Programme Groningen awarded
Avantium a €7.5 million grant to support the construction of the FDCA flagship plant. This means
that as of today, Avantium has conditionally secured €95 million of the total €150 million funding
requirement, consisting of (i) the €20 million “PEFerence”-EU Horizon 2020 grant awarded by Biobased Industries Joint Undertaking2
, (ii) the €40 million conditional financing from the Groningen
consortium and Worley, and (iii) Avantium's previously committed investment of €35 million (of
which €24 million was invested by 19 March 2021). All financing elements, including the investments
by Worley and the Groningen consortium, are subject to multiple conditions, including the fulfilment
of the key conditions for the FID.
Avantium Renewable Polymers signed the first two conditional offtake agreements for the supply of
PEF resin to manufacture food packaging for bottles and films in 2020. In 2021, Avantium has
continued negotiating with potential partners to secure additional offtake commitments. To date,
this has resulted in two additional offtake commitments, bringing the total now to four such
contracts. Please see ‘Events occurring since 31 December 2020’ on page 11.
Avantium Renewable Polymers made good progress in the engineering design of the flagship plant
and the establishment of the necessary supply chain. In January 2020, the Renewable Polymers
business unit decided in the case of a positive FID, to locate the FDCA flagship plant at Chemie Park
Delfzijl, in the north of the Netherlands. In March 2020, Worley completed the concept development
phase of the engineering (process design package). The second engineering phase (front-endengineering and design - FEED) of the flagship plant has reached its final stages. Similarly, site
preparation and permit processes for the FDCA flagship plant all ran according to the planned
schedule. In January 2021, Avantium Renewable Polymers and Worley agreed on the heads of terms
for the flagship plant EPC contract.

1 The Groningen consortium comprises the Province of Groningen, Groningen Seaports and regional investment funds NOM
(Investment and Development Agency for the Northern Netherlands), Fonds Nieuwe Doen, Investeringsfonds Groningen and
Groeifonds.
2 PEFerence grant under Bio Based Industries Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and
innovation programme (grant agreement No 744409).

On the supply chain side, Avantium has agreed on the principal terms for a multi-year commercial
FDCA polymerisation contract with global specialty polyester supplier Selenis.
Other progress was made in December 2020, when the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (Rijksdienst
voor Ondernemend Nederland - RVO) awarded Avantium Renewable Polymers a €5.4 million grant,
designated for the FDCA pilot plant in Geleen. Avantium will use this grant to set up a new pilot line
for PEF and PEF/PET recycling and polymerisation, further de-risking the operations of the planned
FDCA flagship plant.
Avantium Renewable Chemistries
Throughout 2020, Avantium Renewable Chemistries was able to maintain business continuity despite
challenging circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the full focus on scaling up its
technologies. New partnerships, however, were more difficult to establish in a virtual setting.
The Renewable Chemistries business unit made good technological and operational progress with its
Ray Technology™ which converts industrial sugars into glycols: plantMEG™ (mono-ethylene glycol)
and plantMPG™ (mono-propylene glycol). PlantMEG™ is a fully recyclable, plant-based, high purity
chemical and an important component of plastic bottles and packaging, textiles for clothing and
household items like upholstery and drapery, de-icing products and coolants. PlantMPG™ is a nontoxic, plant-based, high purity chemical used for de-icing and in unsaturated polyester resins (for
example in heat transfer fluids in solar panels). In 2020, the RAY demonstration plant was
successfully commissioned and became fully operational, showing that the technology works at
scale.
Avantium Renewable Chemistries also focused on validating applications for its Dawn Technology™
during the year. Dawn Technology™ is Avantium’s biorefining process, turning forestry and
agricultural residues into industrial sugars and lignin. In April 2020, Avantium was awarded a
€500,000 grant for participating in the CHAPLIN XL project3
for the construction of a test road using
lignin instead of fossil-bitumen to make asphalt, significantly reducing the carbon footprint of road
construction.
Also within Avantium Renewable Chemistries is the Volta platform technology which converts CO2
via electrochemistry into high-value ingredients including glycolic acid and glyoxylic acid, commodity
building blocks, and even fuels. This technology is at the pre-pilot stage and during 2020, Avantium
Renewable Chemistries continued improving the Volta technology, for example, by increasing
process efficiency.
Avantium Catalysis
The Catalysis business unit was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, recording lower
revenues of €9.2 million in 2020 compared to €12.5 million in 2019. In 2020, the customer service
operations of Avantium Catalysis were hindered by travel restrictions, preventing Catalysis
employees from installing, maintaining and upgrading the Flowrence® systems at customers’ sites.
Additionally, many Avantium Catalysis customers closed or scaled back their laboratories in line with
the pandemic public health measures. The turmoil in the world’s oil industry also had an impact on the operations of many of the Catalysis customers, leading to a reduction in orders. Despite those

3 The CHAPLIN XL project is a collaboration between multiple industrial and academic parties. The aim of the collaboration is to
test a new approach to substantially reduce CO2 emissions from road construction.

challenges, Avantium Catalysis received an order in June 2020 from the KAUST Catalysis Center in
Saudi Arabia for Flowrence® systems worth more than €3 million. Moreover, the contract research services revenues increased by 6% (€3.3 million) compared with 2019 (€3.1 million).

Patents
Last year, 18 new patents were granted to Avantium, of which 10 are related to YXY® Technology to produce FDCA. In 2020, Avantium took steps to improve, secure, and defend its IP portfolio. For
example, Avantium successfully defended its patents against third-party observations and oppositions in both Europe and Japan.
In September 2020, Avantium Renewable Polymers granted leading wood modification company
Kebony a licence to use its humins patents, as well as the right to file additional patents in the application area. Humins are a valuable side stream from Avantium’s process to produce FDCA. With
these licence rights, Kebony has the potential to successfully commercialise wood modified with a mix of humins and furfuryl alcohol. This opens new avenues for further collaboration between
Avantium and Kebony, and the commercialisation of humins from Avantium’s planned FDCA flagship plant.
In February 2021, Avantium announced that Avantium Renewable Polymers signed a patent licence
agreement with Eastman Chemical Company (see page 11, ‘Events occurring since 31 December 2020’).

Investor Relations and Share Performance
On 23 March 2020, Avantium was promoted to the Euronext Amsterdam SmallCap Index (AScX), following Euronext’s quarterly review. The AScX consists of the 25 listed companies ranked 51–75 (in terms of size) on Euronext Amsterdam, the Dutch stock exchange.
The Avantium share price increased by 104% in 2020 (31 December 2020: €6.42). The total number of Avantium shares traded also rose substantially in 2020 to 25.7 million shares (6.3 million shares in 2019).

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