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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 seems the smart money knows that debt - which is usually involved in bankruptcies - is a very important factor, when you assess how risky a company is. We can see that ICF International, Inc. (NASDAQ:ICFI) does use debt in its business. But the real question is whether this debt is making the company risky.
When Is Debt A Problem?
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. If things get really bad, the lenders can take control of the business. 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, the upside of debt is that it often represents cheap capital, especially when it replaces dilution in a company with the ability to reinvest at high rates of return. When we examine debt levels, we first consider both cash and debt levels, together.
View our latest analysis for ICF International
What Is ICF International's Net Debt?
You can click the graphic below for the historical numbers, but it shows that as of June 2019 ICF International had US$288.5m of debt, an increase on US$243.6m, over one year. However, it does have US$6.30m in cash offsetting this, leading to net debt of about US$282.2m.
How Healthy Is ICF International's Balance Sheet?
The latest balance sheet data shows that ICF International had liabilities of US$274.0m due within a year, and liabilities of US$473.2m falling due after that. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of US$6.30m as well as receivables valued at US$431.1m due within 12 months. So it has liabilities totalling US$309.7m more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.
This deficit isn't so bad because ICF International is worth US$1.52b, and thus could probably raise enough capital to shore up its balance sheet, if the need arose. But we definitely want to keep our eyes open to indications that its debt is bringing too much risk.
We measure a company's debt load relative to its earnings power by looking at its net debt divided by its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and by calculating how easily its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) cover its interest expense (interest cover). Thus we consider debt relative to earnings both with and without depreciation and amortization expenses.