Note 5: Senior Convertible Notes Payable

The Company has issued four series of senior secured convertible notes payable (collectively, the “Senior Convertible Notes”). In general, each series is convertible into shares of common stock. At August 31, 2019, the Company had $6.8 million of the Senior Convertible Notes in default. During the nine months ended May 31, 2020, the Company entered into a series of note amendments, exchanges, and settlements resulting in the resolution of the default conditions and subsequent repayment or conversion of all Senior Convertible Notes. The Senior Convertible Notes Payable consist of the following:

 

 

As of August 31, 2019, the Company had been declared in default of its Senior Convertible Notes for not honoring conversion notices in June 2019. Three of the Company’s five institutional investors had filed litigation and the Senior Convertible Notes were considered to be in default as of August 31, 2019. See also Note 9 for additional information on the litigation related to the Senior Convertible Notes.

During the nine months ended May 31, 2020, the Company resolved all litigation related to its outstanding notes and all of the Senior Convertible Notes were repaid in cash or converted into common stock.  On August 31, 2019 the Company had gross principal of $6,808,000 representing:

On December 6, 2019, the Company entered into an exchange agreement with the holder of $2,445,000 of its March 2019 Notes and $222,000 of its December 2018 Notes for new senior convertible notes (the "December 2019 Exchange Notes"). The December 2019 Exchange Notes and the related warrant and note conversion agreement revised the conversion price of the holder’s December 2018 Notes and March 2019 Notes to $40.00 per share, extended the term of the notes to March 1, 2022, provided for a revised quarterly amortization schedule beginning April 1, 2020 of 12.5% of the principal balance as of January 31, 2020 payable in cash , and removed certain anti-dilution terms warrants issued in March 2019 (the “March 2019 Warrants”). The Company agreed to issue an additional $200,000 of consideration to the holder, payable in common stock, as consideration for this exchange and agreed to increase the principal outstanding on the notes exchanged by 10% from $222,000 for the December 2018 Notes to $244,000, and from $2,445,000 for the March 2019 Notes to $2,690,000, for a combined revised principal balance of $2,934,000. On December 11, 2019, the Company issued 21,750 shares of common stock to the holder in satisfaction of the additional $200,000 of consideration.  The Company provided for up to 10% of the revised combined principal of $2,934,000 to be converted at a reduced price of $12.20 per share until January 31, 2020.  In January 2020, the investor converted $293,000 into 24,049 shares of common stock.  The Company evaluated the exchange under ASC 470 and determined that the exchange should be treated as a debt modification.  The Company recorded an additional note discount of $467,000 representing the combined additional shares issued, valued at $200,000 and the additional $267,000 in notes issued in the exchange.

December 2019 Exchange

The terms of the December 2019 Exchange Notes are summarized as follows:

In January 2020, one investor received a legal judgement for $500,000 plus default interest of $52,000.  The judgement was paid in cash in January 2020, which included the repayment of $310,000 principal of the March 2019 Notes.  Upon payment of the legal judgement, the litigation was resolved with this investor.

In January 2020, the Company settled all legal claims with two investors by entering into settlement agreements and by payment of $2,047,000 in cash and the issuance of 103,593 shares of common stock.  The settlements resulted in the elimination of combined default penalties, default interest, and $2,194,000 of principal of the June 2018 Notes, the December 2018 Notes, and the March 2019 Notes.

In January 2020, the Company reduced the conversion price of the remaining June 2018 Notes and the December 2018 Notes payable to  $12.20, and $500,000 of  the June 2018 Notes and the December 2018 Notes were converted into 41,004 shares of common stock.  An additional 4,207 shares of common stock were issued in settlement of default interest of $51,000.

In January 2020, one investor converted $130,000 of the March 2019 Note principal and $28,000 of accrued default interest at $12.20 per share into 12,915 shares of common stock, and one investor converted $293,000 of the December 2019 Exchange Notes into 24,049 shares at a conversion price of $12.20 per share.

As a result of these settlements and conversions, the Company recorded $567,000 of additional expense for debt conversion inducement representing the value of the shares issued at market and the $12.20 per share conversion price on the date of issuance.

The Company had previously recorded $1,800,000 of accrued interest and penalties as of August 31, 2019. As a result of the settlements and resolution of litigation, the Company recorded a gain of $760,000 for the quarter ended February 29, 2020 and the nine months ended May 31, 2020.

March 2020 Warrant and Note Exchanges and Note Conversions

Between March 1, 2020 and March 22, 2020, the conversion terms of the December 2019 Exchange Notes and March 2019 Notes were modified at the mutual agreement of the investors and the Company to temporarily change the conversion price to a fixed conversion price of $9.20 per share. Three investors converted $1,047,000 of the Company’s Convertible Notes and $25,000 of accrued default interest into 135,508 shares of common stock at a conversion price of $9.20 per share.  The Company recorded an additional loss on note conversion of $413,000 representing the pro rata portion of the unamortized note discount and deferred financing fees.

On March 23, 2020, the Company entered into the following Amendment and Exchange Agreements (the “Amendment and Exchange Agreements”) with certain institutional investors, pursuant to which the Company amended and restated certain existing March 2019 Notes including the capitalization of $59,000 of accrued default interest (the “Amended and Restated Notes”) and issued (i) convertible notes in an aggregate principal amount of $167,000 convertible into shares of common stock at a conversion price of $9.20 per share of common stock (the “Exchange Notes”), (ii) warrants to purchase an aggregate of 162,950 shares of common stock at an exercise price of $10.17 per share of common stock (the “Exchange Warrants”) and (iii) an aggregate of 82,654 shares of common stock:

On March 24, 2020, the Company entered into an Exchange Agreement (the “Exchange Agreement”  and, together with the Amendment and Exchange Agreements, the "March 2020 Agreements”) with CVI Investments, Inc. (“CVI”) pursuant to which CVI exchanged its outstanding senior convertible note due 2022 for (i) a warrant to purchase 260,719 shares of common stock (the "CVI Exchange Warrant" and, together with the Exchange Warrants the "March 2020 Exchange Warrants") and (b) a senior convertible note in an aggregate principal amount of $1,829,000 convertible into shares of common stock at a conversion price of $9.20 per share (the "CVI Exchange Note", and together with the Exchange Notes, the "March 2020 Exchange Notes").

The Company evaluated the March 2020 Exchange Agreements as an exchange under ASC 470 and determined that the exchanges should be treated as debt extinguishments and reissuances. The Company accelerated the remaining unamortized discount and deferred financing fees as of the date of the exchange and recorded the fair value of the shares issued in exchange for the warrants cancelled as a loss on exchange of $1,592,000.  The Company valued the revised conversion features of the Amended and Restated Notes, the March 2020 Exchange Notes and the March 2020 Exchange Warrants using the binomial method and recorded a discount of $2,825,000 on the exchange dates. The Company used the following assumptions to value the conversion features and March 2020 Exchange Warrants:

 

Between March 24, 2020 and May 18, 2020 CVI converted $1,829,000 of its senior convertible notes into 198,756 shares of common stock, Alpha converted $868,000 of its senior convertible notes into 94,298 shares of common stock and Osher converted $130,000 of its senior convertible notes into 14,023 shares of common stock.  These conversions resulted in full acceleration of all unamortized debt discount to expense of $2,419,000, recorded as other expense in the statement of operations as loss on conversion. 

Certain conversions during the quarter ended May 31, 2020 resulted in shares issued below the closing market price on the date of conversion.  The Company recorded $57,000 of additional loss on conversion to the statement of operations for the three months ended May 31, 2020 representing the difference in fair value between the closing share price and the conversion price on the date of issuance.

The following table rolls forward the Senior Convertible Notes balances and related deferred financing costs and note discount balances  from August 31, 2019 to May 31, 2020:

 

 

During the three and nine months ended May 31, 2020, the Company amortized $555,000 and $2,210,000, respectively, and for the three and nine months ended May 31, 2019, the Company amortized $722,000 and $1,433,000, respectively, to interest expense from the combined amortization of deferred financing costs and note discounts recorded at issuance for the June 2018 Notes, the March 2019 Notes, March 2019 Exchange Notes, and the December 2019 Exchange Notes (as defined above).