These 4 Measures Indicate That Tesco (LON:TSCO) Is Using Debt Reasonably Well

Warren Buffett famously said, 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' 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. As with many other companies Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) makes use of debt. But the real question is whether this debt is making the company risky.

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When Is Debt Dangerous?

Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. Part and parcel of capitalism is the process of 'creative destruction' where failed businesses are mercilessly liquidated by their bankers. However, a more usual (but still expensive) situation is where a company must dilute shareholders at a cheap share price simply to get debt under control. 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 step when considering a company's debt levels is to consider its cash and debt together.

How Much Debt Does Tesco Carry?

As you can see below, Tesco had UK£7.18b of debt, at August 2025, which is about the same as the year before. You can click the chart for greater detail. However, it also had UK£4.59b in cash, and so its net debt is UK£2.58b.

How Healthy Is Tesco's Balance Sheet?

We can see from the most recent balance sheet that Tesco had liabilities of UK£15.4b falling due within a year, and liabilities of UK£13.3b due beyond that. On the other hand, it had cash of UK£4.59b and UK£1.31b worth of receivables due within a year. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by UK£22.8b.

This is a mountain of leverage even relative to its gargantuan market capitalization of UK£29.3b. This suggests shareholders would be heavily diluted if the company needed to shore up its balance sheet in a hurry.

View our latest analysis for Tesco

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). This way, we consider both the absolute quantum of the debt, as well as the interest rates paid on it.

While Tesco's low debt to EBITDA ratio of 0.61 suggests only modest use of debt, the fact that EBIT only covered the interest expense by 5.9 times last year does give us pause. So we'd recommend keeping a close eye on the impact financing costs are having on the business. Notably Tesco's EBIT was pretty flat over the last year. Ideally it can diminish its debt load by kick-starting earnings growth. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine Tesco's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. 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. So it's worth checking how much of that EBIT is backed by free cash flow. During the last three years, Tesco produced sturdy free cash flow equating to 78% of its EBIT, about what we'd expect. This cold hard cash means it can reduce its debt when it wants to.

Our View

Both Tesco's ability to to convert EBIT to free cash flow and its net debt to EBITDA gave us comfort that it can handle its debt. Having said that, its level of total liabilities somewhat sensitizes us to potential future risks to the balance sheet. Considering this range of data points, we think Tesco is in a good position to manage its debt levels. But a word of caution: we think debt levels are high enough to justify ongoing monitoring. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately, every company can contain risks that exist outside of the balance sheet. To that end, you should be aware of the 1 warning sign we've spotted with Tesco .

If you're interested in investing in businesses that can grow profits without the burden of debt, then check out this free list of growing businesses that have net cash on the balance sheet.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.