ASENSUS SURGICAL, INC. - Quarter Report: 2022 September (Form 10-Q)

ASENSUS SURGICAL, INC.

In addition to historical financial information, this report contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act, that concern matters that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this report, including statements regarding future events, our future financial performance, our future business strategy and the plans and objectives of management for future operations, are forward-looking statements. We have attempted to identify forward-looking statements by terminology including “anticipates,” “believes,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “intends,” “in the event that,” “may,” “plans,” “potential,” “predicts,” “should” or “will” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. Although we do not make forward-looking statements unless we believe we have a reasonable basis for doing so, we cannot guarantee their accuracy. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results and the timing of certain events to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on our operating results. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by us, which attempt to advise interested parties of the risks, uncertainties, and other factors that affect our business, operating results, financial condition and stock price, including without limitation the disclosures made under the captions “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” “Financial Statements,” “Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements “and “Risk Factors” in this report, as well as the disclosures made in the Asensus Surgical, Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 (the “Fiscal 2021 Form 10-K”), and other filings we make with the SEC. Furthermore, such forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this report. We expressly disclaim any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date hereof to conform such statements to actual results or to changes in our opinions or expectations except as required by applicable law. To the extent that our business is negatively impacted due to a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the impact of COVID-19 and other geopolitical factors on our operating results, and the demand for our products, we may implement longer-term cost reduction efforts in order to mitigate such impact. References in this report to “we,” “our,” “us,” or the “Company” refer to Asensus Surgical, Inc., including its subsidiaries Asensus Surgical US, Inc., Asensus International, Inc., Asensus Surgical Italia S.r.l., Asensus Surgical Europe S.à.r.l., Asensus Surgical Taiwan Ltd., Asensus Surgical Japan K.K., Asensus Surgical Israel Ltd., Asensus Surgical Netherlands B.V., and Asensus Surgical Canada, Inc.

Any disclosure in this report regarding the receipt of CE Mark or Section 510(k) clearance for any of the Company’s products does not mean or infer any endorsement of the Company’s products by any government agency including, without limitation, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, or FDA.

PART 1. FINANCIAL INFORMATION

Item 1.         Financial Statements

Asensus Surgical, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations and Comprehensive Loss

(in thousands except per share amounts)

(Unaudited)

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

Asensus Surgical, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets

(in thousands, except share amounts)

(Unaudited)

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

Asensus Surgical, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Changes in Stockholders’ Equity

(in thousands)

(Unaudited)

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

Asensus Surgical, Inc.

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows

(in thousands)

(Unaudited)

See accompanying notes to unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements.

Asensus Surgical, Inc.

Notes to Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements (Unaudited)

Asensus Surgical, Inc. (formerly known as TransEnterix, Inc.) (the "Company") is a medical device company that is digitizing the interface between the surgeon and the patient to pioneer a new era of Performance-Guided Surgery™ by unlocking clinical intelligence for surgeons to enable consistently superior outcomes and a new standard of surgery. The Company is focused on the market development for and commercialization of the Senhance® Surgical System, which digitizes laparoscopic minimally invasive surgery, or MIS. The Senhance System is the first and only digital, multi-port laparoscopic platform designed to maintain laparoscopic MIS standards while providing digital benefits such as haptic feedback, robotic precision, comfortable ergonomics, advanced instrumentation including 3mm microlaparoscopic instruments, 5mm articulating instruments, eye-sensing camera control and fully-reusable standard instruments to help maintain per-procedure costs similar to traditional laparoscopy.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) and include the accounts of the Company and its direct and indirect wholly owned subsidiaries. All inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation. The results reported in these unaudited interim condensed consolidated financial statements should not be regarded as necessarily indicative of results that may be expected for any subsequent period or for the entire year. These unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements and notes thereto should be read in conjunction with the Company’s audited consolidated financial statements and the notes thereto included in the Fiscal 2021 Form 10-K. Certain information and footnote disclosures normally included in the annual consolidated financial statements prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP have been condensed or omitted in the accompanying interim condensed consolidated financial statements. In the opinion of the Company’s management, the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements contain all adjustments, consisting only of normal recurring adjustments, except as otherwise indicated, necessary for a fair statement of its financial position, results of operations, and cash flows of the Company for all periods presented.

Principles of Consolidation

The accompanying condensed consolidated financial statements include the accounts of the Company and its direct and indirect wholly owned subsidiaries, Asensus Surgical US, Inc., Asensus International, Inc., Asensus Surgical Italia S.r.l., Asensus Surgical Europe S.à.r.l., Asensus Surgical Taiwan Ltd., Asensus Surgical Japan K.K., Asensus Surgical Israel Ltd., Asensus Surgical Netherlands B.V., and Asensus Surgical Canada, Inc. All inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Risk and Uncertainties

The Company is subject to risks similar to other similarly sized companies in the medical device industry. These risks include, without limitation: negative impacts on the Company's operations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and other geopolitical factors; the historical lack of profitability; the Company’s ability to raise additional capital; the success of its market development efforts; its ability to successfully develop, clinically test and commercialize its products; the timing and outcome of the regulatory review process for its products; changes in the health care and regulatory environments of the United States, the European Union, Japan, Taiwan, and other countries in which the Company operates or intends to operate; its ability to attract and retain key management, marketing and scientific personnel; its ability to successfully prepare, file, prosecute, maintain, defend and enforce patent claims and other intellectual property rights; its ability to successfully transition from a research and development company to a marketing, sales and distribution company; competition in the market for robotic surgical devices; and its ability to identify and pursue development of additional products.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of financial statements in conformity with U.S. GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates. Significant items subject to such estimates and assumptions include impairment considerations for long-lived assets, fair value estimates related to contingent consideration, stock compensation expense, revenue recognition, accounts receivable reserves, short-term and long-term investments, excess and obsolete inventory reserves, inventory classification between current and non-current, measurement of lease liabilities and corresponding right-of-use (“ROU”) assets, and deferred tax asset valuation allowances.

Significant Accounting Policies

There have been no new or material changes to the significant accounting policies discussed in the Company’s audited financial statements and the notes thereto included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021.

Reclassifications

Certain amounts reported previously have been reclassified to conform to current year presentation, with no effect on stockholders’ equity or net loss as previously reported. These reclassifications relate to revenue and cost of revenue for leases which historically were included in product and service revenue and corresponding cost of revenue on the condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021.

Impact of Recently Issued Accounting Standards

In June 2016, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (“FASB”), issued ASU 2016-13, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments, which is designed to provide financial statement users with more information about the expected credit losses on financial instruments and other commitments to extend credit held by a reporting entity at each reporting date. The Company adopted ASU 2016-13 as of January 1, 2022, on a modified retrospective basis. The cumulative-effect adjustment related to the adoption was not material.

In August 2020, the FASB issued ASU 2020-06, Debt – Debt with Conversion and Other Options (Subtopic 470-20) and Derivatives and Hedging – Contracts in Entity’s Own Equity (Subtopic 815-40) guidance on the accounting for convertible debt instruments and contracts in an entity’s own equity. The guidance simplifies the accounting for convertible instruments by reducing the various accounting models that can require the instrument to be separated into a debt component and equity component or derivative component. The Company adopted ASU 2020-06 as of January 1, 2022. The adoption did not have a material impact to the consolidated financial statements.

The Company has evaluated all other issued and ASUs not yet adopted and believes the adoption of these standards will not have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.

The following table presents revenue disaggregated by type and geography:

Remaining Performance Obligations

Transaction price allocated to remaining performance obligations relates to amounts allocated to products and services for which the revenue has not yet been recognized. A significant portion of this amount relates to service obligations performed under the Company's system sales contracts that will be invoiced and recognized as revenue in future periods. Transaction price allocated to remaining performance obligations as of September 30, 2022 was $1.8 million, which is expected to be recognized over one to four years. 

Contract Assets and Liabilities

The Company invoices its customers based on the billing schedules in its sales arrangements. Contract assets for the periods presented primarily represent the difference between the revenue that was recognized based on the relative selling price of the related performance obligations and the contractual billing terms in the arrangements. Deferred revenue for the periods presented was primarily related to service obligations, for which the service fees are billed up-front, generally annually. The associated deferred revenue is generally recognized ratably over the service period. The Company did not have any significant impairment losses on its contract assets for the periods presented. Revenue recognized for the three months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021 that was included in the deferred revenue balance at the beginning of each reporting period was $0.2 million and $0.1 million, respectively. Revenue recognized for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021 that was included in the deferred revenue balance at the beginning of each reporting period was $0.7 million and $0.5 million, respectively.

The following information summarizes the Company’s contract assets and liabilities:

Senhance System Leasing

The Company enters into lease arrangements with certain qualified customers. Revenue related to arrangements including lease elements are allocated to lease and non-lease elements based on their relative standalone selling prices. Lease elements generally include a Senhance System, while non-lease elements generally include instruments, accessories, and services. For some lease arrangements, the customers are provided with the option to purchase the leased System at some point during and/or at the end of the lease term. In some arrangements lease payments are based on the usage of the System. For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, and 2021, variable lease revenue related to usage-based arrangements was not material.  

Trade Accounts Receivable

The allowance for expected credit losses is based on the Company’s assessment of collectability of customer accounts.  The Company regularly reviews the allowance by considering factors such as historical experience, credit quality, the age of the accounts receivable balances, and current economic conditions that may affect a customer’s ability to pay.  The allowance for expected credit losses was $1.5 million and $1.7 million as of September 30, 2022, and December 31, 2021, respectively.  For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, and 2021, bad debt expense was not material. 

The following are categories of assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis using quoted prices in active markets for identical assets (Level 1); significant other observable inputs (Level 2); and significant unobservable inputs (Level 3):

The carrying values of accounts receivable, prepaid expenses, employee retention tax credit receivables, other current assets, accounts payable, accrued employee compensation and benefits, accrued expenses, deferred revenue, and other current liabilities as of September 30, 2022, and December 31, 2021, approximate their fair values due to the short-term nature of these items.

The Company’s financial liabilities consisted of contingent consideration payable to Three Heads Investment S.r.l., related to the Company’s 2015 acquisition of the Senhance Surgical System from an assignor to Three Heads Investment S.r.l. (the “Senhance Acquisition”). Adjustments associated with the change in fair value of contingent consideration are included in the Company’s condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss.

The following table presents quantitative information about the inputs and valuation methodologies used for the Company’s fair value measurements for contingent consideration utilizing a Monte-Carlo simulation as of September 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021:

The following table summarizes the change in fair value, as determined by Level 3 inputs for the contingent consideration for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021:

The aggregate fair values of investment securities along with unrealized gains and losses determined on an individual investment security basis and included in other comprehensive loss are as follows:

The following table summarizes the contractual maturities of the Company’s available-for-sale investments:

Actual maturities may differ from contractual maturities because certain borrowers have the right to call or prepay certain obligations. There were no sales of investments or gross realized gains or losses for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, and 2021, respectively.

The components of inventories are as follows:

The Company has determined that its December 31, 2021 inventory footnote presentation overstated raw materials and understated finished goods by $2.5 million.  For comparative purposes, the Company’s prior year inventory footnote has been revised to reflect the adjustment to raw materials and finished goods.  The revision had no effect on the previously reported total gross and net carrying value of inventory.  The revision also had no effect on the previously reported consolidated balance sheets, statements of operations and comprehensive loss, cash flows and stockholders’ equity. 

The components of gross intellectual property, accumulated amortization, and net intellectual property are as follows:

The weighted average remaining useful life of the developed technology and technology and patents purchased was 4.4 years and 4.6 years, respectively, as of September 30, 2022. The weighted average remaining useful life of the developed technology and technology and patents purchased was 1.6 years and 5.3 years, respectively as of December 31, 2021.

Lessee Information

The Company determines if an arrangement contains a lease at inception. Where an arrangement contains a lease, the Company determines if it is an operating lease or a finance lease. Subsequently, if the arrangement is modified, the Company reevaluates the classification. The Company has entered into operating leases for corporate office buildings, vehicles, and machinery and equipment. Some of the lease agreements have renewal options, tenant improvement allowances, rent escalation clauses, and assignment and subletting clauses. While the operating leases range from one year to ten years, some include options to extend the lease generally between one year and six years, and some include options to terminate the leases within one year.

Components of operating lease expense are primarily recorded in general and administrative on the condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss were as follows:

Supplemental balance sheet information related to operating leases was as follows:

Maturities of operating lease obligations as of September 30, 2022 were as follows (in thousands):

During the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, the Company recorded a non-cash asset impairment charge of $0.0 and $0.4 million, respectively, to reduce the carrying value of property and equipment to its estimated fair value. The property and equipment is associated with returned Senhance Systems under operating leases that are not expected to generate future cash flows sufficient to recover their net book value. The fair value was estimated based on the discounted cash flows expected to be produced by the property and equipment. The impairment was recorded in property and equipment impairment on the condensed consolidated statements of operations and comprehensive loss. No such impairment charges were recorded during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2021.

Income taxes have been accounted for using the asset and liability method in accordance with ASC 740 “Income Taxes”. The Company computes its interim provision for income taxes by applying the estimated annual effective tax rate method. The Company estimates an annual effective tax rate of (0.4)% for the year ending December 31, 2022. This rate does not include the impact of any discrete items. The Company’s effective tax rate for the three months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021 was (0.3)% and (0.2)%, respectively. The Company’s effective tax rate for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021 was (0.4)% and 0.0%, respectively.

The Company incurred losses for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2022, and is forecasting additional losses through the year, resulting in an estimated net loss for both financial statement and tax purposes for the year ending December 31, 2022. Due to the Company’s history of losses, there is not sufficient evidence to record a net deferred tax asset associated with the U.S., Luxembourg, Swiss, Italian, Taiwanese, and Canadian operations. Accordingly, a full valuation allowance has been recorded related to the net deferred tax assets in those jurisdictions.

The total tax (expense) benefit during the three months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021, was approximately ($0.055) million and ($0.032) million, respectively. The total tax (expense) benefit during the nine months ended September 30, 2022 and 2021, was approximately ($0.224) million and $0.004 million, respectively.z 

At September 30, 2022 the Company had no unrecognized tax benefits that would affect the Company’s effective tax rate.

The FASB Staff Q&A, Topic 740, No. 5, Accounting for Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (“GILTI”), states that an entity can make an accounting policy election to either recognize deferred taxes for temporary basis differences expected to reverse as GILTI in future years or to provide for the tax expense related to GILTI in the year the tax is incurred as a period expense only. The Company has elected to account for GILTI as a period expense in the year the tax is incurred. The Company does not expect a GILTI inclusion for 2022; no GILTI tax has been recorded for the nine months ended September 30, 2022 or 2021.

Stock Options

The following table summarizes the Company’s stock option activity, including grants to non-employees, for the nine months ended September 30, 2022:

The following table summarizes information about stock options outstanding at September 30, 2022:

Restricted Stock Units

The following is a summary of the restricted stock units activity, including performance restricted stock units, for the nine months ended September 30, 2022: