Is Amyris Inc (NASDAQ:AMRS) Finally Starting To Capitalize On Its Potential?

Amyris Inc (NASDAQ:AMRS) is generating a lot of speculative buzz on the back of a couple of days of decent gains, but the company is still down 75% on this time last year, and the idea of a near term reversal looks distant right now.This said, as far as prospects go, Amyris looks to be one of the strongest stocks of its size out there, and combined with recent progress, these prospects make for a convincing bullish thesis.Here's why.First up, and for those not familiar with the company, a quick introduction.Amyris started life in UoC Berkeley where scientists figured out how to create what's called artemisinic acid out of genetically modified yeast. Artemisinic acid is a key ingredient in curing malaria, and pre find, it could only be extracted from a rare Chinese plant. The ability to create it synthetically (well, sort of synthetically) changed the playing field, and the team of scientists formed Amyris, picked up a $40 million investment from the Gates Foundation, and the company went on to form partnerships with Sanofi SA (ADR) (NYSE:SNY) and Total SA (ADR) (NYSE:TOT).The company now produces a product called farnesene, in much the same way it did artemisinic acid, out of a facility in Brazil. Farnesene underpins the vast majority of its operations, and forms the basis of a score of licensing deals with companies of many different sectors – biofuels, aviation, fragrances, biotech and more.The company generated just shy of $9.6 million revenues second quarter this year for a net loss of $13.99 million. These numbers are pretty much irrelevant now, however, on the back of a couple of key licensing and partnership deals that are going to drive revenues for the next three years, and likely beyond.One is with Givaudan S.A. (VTX:GIVN), and is set to deliver an annual run rate of circa $50 million for the company. Another is with Ginko, which saw the latter offer up $15 million in upfront licensing, and is expected to generate over $300 million in incremental value for both companies in the next 5 years.The thing to recognize here is that demand for farnesene is increasing dramatically (analysts expect the market to grow more than 27% CAGR to 2023, from its 2015 levels of 8 kilo tons in 2015) and Amyris is the only company in the world that can produce it the scale required (we could be even stricter here and say it's the only company that can produce it full stop) to meet this demand.Yes, management has messed up over the last few years, and the finances/capital structure are not that great. Yes, it seems as though the company has failed (somehow) to capitalize on its potential. But this now looks like it's turning around.Debt is an issue. The company has just shy of $200 million debt, long and short/current combined, and not accounting for upfronts from the recent collaborations, a little over $1 million cash on hand. It's paying just short of $10 million a quarter to service its interest, and is nowhere near in a position to start reducing principal. Dilution is going to be an issue, and for many shareholders (who have had to sit back and watch the company's share price eat away at the value of their holdings) this might not be worth tolerating.With this said, however, if there was ever a time a company looked on the brink of a complete pivot in fortune, it's this one, and now. It would take a spectacularly bad management team to mess this one up from here (we've seen it happen before, of course) and we think this makes Amyris well worth a cautious look at current levels. We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on AMRS, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in AMRS and have not been compensated for this article.