MBV International (HKG:1957) Might Be Having Difficulty Using Its Capital Effectively

Did you know there are some financial metrics that can provide clues of a potential multi-bagger? Ideally, a business will show two trends; firstly a growing return on capital employed (ROCE) and secondly, an increasing amount of capital employed. This shows us that it's a compounding machine, able to continually reinvest its earnings back into the business and generate higher returns. In light of that, when we looked at MBV International (HKG:1957) and its ROCE trend, we weren't exactly thrilled.

What Is Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)?

If you haven't worked with ROCE before, it measures the 'return' (pre-tax profit) a company generates from capital employed in its business. The formula for this calculation on MBV International is:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.096 = RM16m ÷ (RM179m - RM9.6m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to June 2022).

Thus, MBV International has an ROCE of 9.6%. On its own, that's a low figure but it's around the 9.4% average generated by the Retail Distributors industry.

Check out the opportunities and risks within the HK Retail Distributors industry.

Historical performance is a great place to start when researching a stock so above you can see the gauge for MBV International's ROCE against it's prior returns. If you're interested in investigating MBV International's past further, check out this free graph of past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

What Can We Tell From MBV International's ROCE Trend?

In terms of MBV International's historical ROCE movements, the trend isn't fantastic. To be more specific, ROCE has fallen from 25% over the last five years. Although, given both revenue and the amount of assets employed in the business have increased, it could suggest the company is investing in growth, and the extra capital has led to a short-term reduction in ROCE. And if the increased capital generates additional returns, the business, and thus shareholders, will benefit in the long run.

On a side note, MBV International has done well to pay down its current liabilities to 5.4% of total assets. So we could link some of this to the decrease in ROCE. Effectively this means their suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of the business, which reduces some elements of risk. Since the business is basically funding more of its operations with it's own money, you could argue this has made the business less efficient at generating ROCE.

What We Can Learn From MBV International's ROCE

While returns have fallen for MBV International in recent times, we're encouraged to see that sales are growing and that the business is reinvesting in its operations. However, despite the promising trends, the stock has fallen 30% over the last year, so there might be an opportunity here for astute investors. As a result, we'd recommend researching this stock further to uncover what other fundamentals of the business can show us.

One final note, you should learn about the 2 warning signs we've spotted with MBV International (including 1 which is a bit unpleasant) .

For those who like to invest in solid companies, check out this free list of companies with solid balance sheets and high returns on equity.

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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.