Here's Why Recticel (EBR:REC) Has A Meaningful Debt Burden

Howard Marks put it nicely when he said that, rather than worrying about share price volatility, 'The possibility of permanent loss is the risk I worry about... and every practical investor I know worries about.' 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. Importantly, Recticel SA/NV (EBR:REC) does carry debt. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

Why Does Debt Bring Risk?

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. Ultimately, if the company can't fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt, shareholders could walk away with nothing. 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, debt can be an important tool in businesses, particularly capital heavy businesses. When we think about a company's use of debt, we first look at cash and debt together.

View our latest analysis for Recticel

What Is Recticel's Debt?

You can click the graphic below for the historical numbers, but it shows that Recticel had €16.5m of debt in December 2020, down from €121.4m, one year before. But on the other hand it also has €79.4m in cash, leading to a €62.9m net cash position.

How Strong Is Recticel's Balance Sheet?

We can see from the most recent balance sheet that Recticel had liabilities of €210.0m falling due within a year, and liabilities of €153.9m due beyond that. Offsetting this, it had €79.4m in cash and €162.1m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by €122.4m.

Since publicly traded Recticel shares are worth a total of €653.4m, it seems unlikely that this level of liabilities would be a major threat. But there are sufficient liabilities that we would certainly recommend shareholders continue to monitor the balance sheet, going forward. While it does have liabilities worth noting, Recticel also has more cash than debt, so we're pretty confident it can manage its debt safely.

Importantly, Recticel's EBIT fell a jaw-dropping 56% 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. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if Recticel 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.

Finally, while the tax-man may adore accounting profits, lenders only accept cold hard cash. While Recticel has net cash on its balance sheet, it's still worth taking a look at its ability to convert earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to free cash flow, to help us understand how quickly it is building (or eroding) that cash balance. Looking at the most recent three years, Recticel recorded free cash flow of 24% of its EBIT, which is weaker than we'd expect. That's not great, when it comes to paying down debt.

Summing up

While Recticel does have more liabilities than liquid assets, it also has net cash of €62.9m. So while Recticel does not have a great balance sheet, it's certainly not too bad. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But ultimately, every company can contain risks that exist outside of the balance sheet. For instance, we've identified 2 warning signs for Recticel (1 is concerning) 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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