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The external fund manager backed by Berkshire Hathaway's Charlie Munger, Li Lu, makes no bones about it when he says 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital. When we think about how risky a company is, we always like to look at its use of debt, since debt overload can lead to ruin. As with many other companies CIM International Group Inc. (CNSX:CIM) makes use of debt. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?
What Risk Does Debt Bring?
Generally speaking, debt only becomes a real problem when a company can't easily pay it off, either by raising capital or with its own cash flow. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. While that is not too common, we often do see indebted companies permanently diluting shareholders because lenders force them to raise capital at a distressed price. By replacing dilution, though, debt can be an extremely good tool for businesses that need capital to invest in growth at high rates of return. The first thing to do when considering how much debt a business uses is to look at its cash and debt together.
See our latest analysis for CIM International Group
What Is CIM International Group's Net Debt?
As you can see below, at the end of June 2019, CIM International Group had CA$19.2m of debt, up from CA$15.3m a year ago. Click the image for more detail. Net debt is about the same, since the it doesn't have much cash.
How Healthy Is CIM International Group's Balance Sheet?
We can see from the most recent balance sheet that CIM International Group had liabilities of CA$11.2m falling due within a year, and liabilities of CA$9.85m due beyond that. Offsetting this, it had CA$9.5k in cash and CA$4.42m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So it has liabilities totalling CA$16.6m more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.
This deficit casts a shadow over the CA$8.77m company, like a colossus towering over mere mortals. So we'd watch its balance sheet closely, without a doubt At the end of the day, CIM International Group would probably need a major re-capitalization if its creditors were to demand repayment.
In order to size up a company's debt relative to its earnings, we calculate its net debt divided by its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) divided by its interest expense (its interest cover). The advantage of this approach is that we take into account both the absolute quantum of debt (with net debt to EBITDA) and the actual interest expenses associated with that debt (with its interest cover ratio).