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Some say volatility, rather than debt, is the best way to think about risk as an investor, but Warren Buffett famously said that 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' 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. Importantly, Sipef NV (EBR:SIP) does carry debt. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?
When Is Debt Dangerous?
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. Ultimately, if the company can't fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt, shareholders could walk away with nothing. 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. Of course, plenty of companies use debt to fund growth, without any negative consequences. When we examine debt levels, we first consider both cash and debt levels, together.
View our latest analysis for Sipef
What Is Sipef's Net Debt?
As you can see below, at the end of June 2019, Sipef had US$157.0m of debt, up from US$104.9m a year ago. Click the image for more detail. However, it does have US$24.5m in cash offsetting this, leading to net debt of about US$132.5m.
A Look At Sipef's Liabilities
According to the last reported balance sheet, Sipef had liabilities of US$165.3m due within 12 months, and liabilities of US$99.2m due beyond 12 months. Offsetting this, it had US$24.5m in cash and US$70.2m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So it has liabilities totalling US$169.8m more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.
Sipef has a market capitalization of US$498.7m, so it could very likely raise cash to ameliorate its balance sheet, if the need arose. However, it is still worthwhile taking a close look at its ability to pay off debt.
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). Thus we consider debt relative to earnings both with and without depreciation and amortization expenses.
While Sipef's debt to EBITDA ratio (2.8) suggests that it uses some debt, its interest cover is very weak, at 1.8, suggesting high leverage. It seems that the business incurs large depreciation and amortisation charges, so maybe its debt load is heavier than it would first appear, since EBITDA is arguably a generous measure of earnings. So shareholders should probably be aware that interest expenses appear to have really impacted the business lately. Looking on the bright side, Sipef boosted its EBIT by a silky 69% in the last year. Like the milk of human kindness that sort of growth increases resilience, making the company more capable of managing debt. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine Sipef's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. So if you want to see what the professionals think, you might find this free report on analyst profit forecasts to be interesting.