There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?
So should Aeterna Zentaris (TSE:AEZS) shareholders be worried about its cash burn? In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.
See our latest analysis for Aeterna Zentaris
Does Aeterna Zentaris Have A Long Cash Runway?
A cash runway is defined as the length of time it would take a company to run out of money if it kept spending at its current rate of cash burn. In September 2020, Aeterna Zentaris had US$22m in cash, and was debt-free. In the last year, its cash burn was US$9.6m. So it had a cash runway of about 2.3 years from September 2020. Arguably, that's a prudent and sensible length of runway to have. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.
How Well Is Aeterna Zentaris Growing?
Aeterna Zentaris reduced its cash burn by 8.2% during the last year, which points to some degree of discipline. But the revenue dip of 32% in the same period was a bit concerning. Considering both these metrics, we're a little concerned about how the company is developing. In reality, this article only makes a short study of the company's growth data. You can take a look at how Aeterna Zentaris has developed its business over time by checking this visualization of its revenue and earnings history.
How Hard Would It Be For Aeterna Zentaris To Raise More Cash For Growth?
Even though it seems like Aeterna Zentaris is developing its business nicely, we still like to consider how easily it could raise more money to accelerate growth. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.
Aeterna Zentaris has a market capitalisation of US$25m and burnt through US$9.6m last year, which is 38% of the company's market value. That's not insignificant, and if the company had to sell enough shares to fund another year's growth at the current share price, you'd likely witness fairly costly dilution.