Perennial Energy Holdings (HKG:2798) Has A Pretty Healthy Balance Sheet

David Iben put it well when he said, 'Volatility is not a risk we care about. What we care about is avoiding the 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 can see that Perennial Energy Holdings Limited (HKG:2798) does use debt in its business. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

When Is Debt Dangerous?

Debt and other liabilities become risky for a business when it cannot easily fulfill those obligations, either with free cash flow or by raising capital at an attractive price. 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, plenty of companies use debt to fund growth, without any negative consequences. When we think about a company's use of debt, we first look at cash and debt together.

View our latest analysis for Perennial Energy Holdings

What Is Perennial Energy Holdings's Net Debt?

The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that at June 2021 Perennial Energy Holdings had debt of CN¥396.0m, up from CN¥182.8m in one year. On the flip side, it has CN¥144.7m in cash leading to net debt of about CN¥251.3m.

How Healthy Is Perennial Energy Holdings' Balance Sheet?

The latest balance sheet data shows that Perennial Energy Holdings had liabilities of CN¥435.3m due within a year, and liabilities of CN¥680.6m falling due after that. On the other hand, it had cash of CN¥144.7m and CN¥123.3m worth of receivables due within a year. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by CN¥848.0m.

Perennial Energy Holdings has a market capitalization of CN¥2.40b, so it could very likely raise cash to ameliorate 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.

Perennial Energy Holdings has a low net debt to EBITDA ratio of only 0.37. And its EBIT easily covers its interest expense, being 37.1 times the size. So you could argue it is no more threatened by its debt than an elephant is by a mouse. On top of that, Perennial Energy Holdings grew its EBIT by 70% over the last twelve months, and that growth will make it easier to handle its debt. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But you can't view debt in total isolation; since Perennial Energy Holdings will need earnings to service that debt. So when considering debt, it's definitely worth looking at the earnings trend. Click here for an interactive snapshot.

Finally, a business needs free cash flow to pay off debt; accounting profits just don't cut it. So we clearly need to look at whether that EBIT is leading to corresponding free cash flow. Over the last three years, Perennial Energy Holdings saw substantial negative free cash flow, in total. While that may be a result of expenditure for growth, it does make the debt far more risky.

Our View

Based on what we've seen Perennial Energy Holdings is not finding it easy, given its conversion of EBIT to free cash flow, but the other factors we considered give us cause to be optimistic. There's no doubt that its ability to to cover its interest expense with its EBIT is pretty flash. Considering this range of data points, we think Perennial Energy Holdings 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. Be aware that Perennial Energy Holdings is showing 1 warning sign in our investment analysis , you should know about...

If, after all that, you're more interested in a fast growing company with a rock-solid balance sheet, then check out our list of net cash growth stocks without delay.

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.

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