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Today we are going to look at Lifestyle International Holdings Limited (HKG:1212) to see whether it might be an attractive investment prospect. In particular, we'll consider its Return On Capital Employed (ROCE), as that can give us insight into how profitably the company is able to employ capital in its business.
Firstly, we'll go over how we calculate ROCE. Then we'll compare its ROCE to similar companies. Last but not least, we'll look at what impact its current liabilities have on its ROCE.
What is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?
ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. Generally speaking a higher ROCE is better. Ultimately, it is a useful but imperfect metric. Renowned investment researcher Michael Mauboussin has suggested that a high ROCE can indicate that 'one dollar invested in the company generates value of more than one dollar'.
So, How Do We Calculate ROCE?
Analysts use this formula to calculate return on capital employed:
Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)
Or for Lifestyle International Holdings:
0.15 = HK$2.4b ÷ (HK$21b - HK$4.6b) (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2018.)
Therefore, Lifestyle International Holdings has an ROCE of 15%.
Check out our latest analysis for Lifestyle International Holdings
Is Lifestyle International Holdings's ROCE Good?
ROCE can be useful when making comparisons, such as between similar companies. In our analysis, Lifestyle International Holdings's ROCE is meaningfully higher than the 5.0% average in the Multiline Retail industry. We would consider this a positive, as it suggests it is using capital more effectively than other similar companies. Independently of how Lifestyle International Holdings compares to its industry, its ROCE in absolute terms appears decent, and the company may be worthy of closer investigation.
As we can see, Lifestyle International Holdings currently has an ROCE of 15% compared to its ROCE 3 years ago, which was 8.8%. This makes us think about whether the company has been reinvesting shrewdly.
Remember that this metric is backwards looking - it shows what has happened in the past, and does not accurately predict the future. ROCE can be misleading for companies in cyclical industries, with returns looking impressive during the boom times, but very weak during the busts. ROCE is, after all, simply a snap shot of a single year. What happens in the future is pretty important for investors, so we have prepared a free report on analyst forecasts for Lifestyle International Holdings.