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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. So it might be obvious that you need to consider debt, when you think about how risky any given stock is, because too much debt can sink a company. As with many other companies Aperam S.A. (AMS:APAM) makes use of debt. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?
When Is Debt Dangerous?
Debt is a tool to help businesses grow, but if a business is incapable of paying off its lenders, then it exists at their mercy. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. However, a more common (but still painful) scenario is that it has to raise new equity capital at a low price, thus permanently diluting shareholders. 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.
View our latest analysis for Aperam
What Is Aperam's Debt?
The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that at June 2019 Aperam had debt of €333.0m, up from €237.0m in one year. However, because it has a cash reserve of €189.0m, its net debt is less, at about €144.0m.
How Strong Is Aperam's Balance Sheet?
According to the last reported balance sheet, Aperam had liabilities of €1.32b due within 12 months, and liabilities of €506.0m due beyond 12 months. On the other hand, it had cash of €189.0m and €284.0m worth of receivables due within a year. So it has liabilities totalling €1.35b more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.
This is a mountain of leverage relative to its market capitalization of €1.82b. Should its lenders demand that it shore up the balance sheet, shareholders would likely face severe dilution.
We use two main ratios to inform us about debt levels relative to earnings. The first is net debt divided by earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), while the second is how many times its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) covers its interest expense (or its interest cover, for short). Thus we consider debt relative to earnings both with and without depreciation and amortization expenses.
Aperam has net debt of just 0.38 times EBITDA, suggesting it could ramp leverage without breaking a sweat. But the really cool thing is that it actually managed to receive more interest than it paid, over the last year. So it's fair to say it can handle debt like a hot shot teppanyaki chef handles cooking. The modesty of its debt load may become crucial for Aperam if management cannot prevent a repeat of the 34% cut to EBIT over the last year. When a company sees its earnings tank, it can sometimes find its relationships with its lenders turn sour. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if Aperam can strengthen its balance sheet over time. So if you want to see what the professionals think, you might find this free report on analyst profit forecasts to be interesting.