These 4 Measures Indicate That Regis Healthcare (ASX:REG) Is Using Debt Extensively

Legendary fund manager Li Lu (who Charlie Munger backed) once said, 'The biggest investment risk is not the volatility of prices, but whether you will suffer a permanent loss of capital.' It's only natural to consider a company's balance sheet when you examine how risky it is, since debt is often involved when a business collapses. We note that Regis Healthcare Limited (ASX:REG) does have debt on its balance sheet. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

When Is Debt A Problem?

Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. 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. 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. The first step when considering a company's debt levels is to consider its cash and debt together.

Check out our latest analysis for Regis Healthcare

What Is Regis Healthcare's Debt?

The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that Regis Healthcare had debt of AU$240.5m at the end of June 2020, a reduction from AU$305.1m over a year. And it doesn't have much cash, so its net debt is about the same.

How Healthy Is Regis Healthcare's Balance Sheet?

We can see from the most recent balance sheet that Regis Healthcare had liabilities of AU$1.34b falling due within a year, and liabilities of AU$308.6m due beyond that. Offsetting these obligations, it had cash of AU$3.80m as well as receivables valued at AU$19.1m due within 12 months. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by AU$1.62b.

The deficiency here weighs heavily on the AU$315.8m company itself, as if a child were struggling under the weight of an enormous back-pack full of books, his sports gear, and a trumpet. So we definitely think shareholders need to watch this one closely. After all, Regis Healthcare would likely require a major re-capitalisation if it had to pay its creditors today.

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). The advantage of this approach is that we take into account both the absolute quantum of debt (with net debt to EBITDA) and the actual interest expenses associated with that debt (with its interest cover ratio).

Regis Healthcare has a debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.8 and its EBIT covered its interest expense 4.5 times. This suggests that while the debt levels are significant, we'd stop short of calling them problematic. Importantly, Regis Healthcare's EBIT fell a jaw-dropping 42% in the last twelve months. If that earnings trend continues then paying off its debt will be about as easy as herding cats on to a roller coaster. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine Regis Healthcare's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. So if you're focused on the future you can check out this free report showing analyst profit forecasts.

But our final consideration is also important, because a company cannot pay debt with paper profits; it needs cold hard cash. So we clearly need to look at whether that EBIT is leading to corresponding free cash flow. During the last three years, Regis Healthcare generated free cash flow amounting to a very robust 83% of its EBIT, more than we'd expect. That puts it in a very strong position to pay down debt.

Our View

To be frank both Regis Healthcare's EBIT growth rate and its track record of staying on top of its total liabilities make us rather uncomfortable with its debt levels. But at least it's pretty decent at converting EBIT to free cash flow; that's encouraging. It's also worth noting that Regis Healthcare is in the Healthcare industry, which is often considered to be quite defensive. Overall, we think it's fair to say that Regis Healthcare has enough debt that there are some real risks around the balance sheet. If everything goes well that may pay off but the downside of this debt is a greater risk of permanent losses. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. However, not all investment risk resides within the balance sheet - far from it. Take risks, for example - Regis Healthcare has 4 warning signs we think you should be aware of.

At the end of the day, it's often better to focus on companies that are free from net debt. You can access our special list of such companies (all with a track record of profit growth). It's free.

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