VSTECS Holdings (HKG:856) Has A Pretty Healthy Balance Sheet

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 VSTECS Holdings Limited (HKG:856) does have debt on its balance sheet. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?

What Risk Does Debt Bring?

Debt assists a business until the business has trouble paying it off, either with new capital or with free cash flow. If things get really bad, the lenders can take control of the business. 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.

See our latest analysis for VSTECS Holdings

What Is VSTECS Holdings's Debt?

As you can see below, VSTECS Holdings had HK$6.28b of debt at December 2021, down from HK$7.00b a year prior. On the flip side, it has HK$4.39b in cash leading to net debt of about HK$1.89b.

A Look At VSTECS Holdings' Liabilities

According to the last reported balance sheet, VSTECS Holdings had liabilities of HK$22.5b due within 12 months, and liabilities of HK$1.74b due beyond 12 months. Offsetting this, it had HK$4.39b in cash and HK$16.2b in receivables that were due within 12 months. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by HK$3.65b.

This deficit isn't so bad because VSTECS Holdings is worth HK$10.8b, and thus could probably raise enough capital to shore up 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 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). Thus we consider debt relative to earnings both with and without depreciation and amortization expenses.

VSTECS Holdings's net debt is only 1.1 times its EBITDA. And its EBIT covers its interest expense a whopping 11.3 times over. So you could argue it is no more threatened by its debt than an elephant is by a mouse. Also good is that VSTECS Holdings grew its EBIT at 18% over the last year, further increasing its ability to manage debt. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if VSTECS Holdings can strengthen its balance sheet over time. 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 it's worth checking how much of that EBIT is backed by free cash flow. Happily for any shareholders, VSTECS Holdings actually produced more free cash flow than EBIT over the last three years. That sort of strong cash conversion gets us as excited as the crowd when the beat drops at a Daft Punk concert.

Our View

Happily, VSTECS Holdings's impressive conversion of EBIT to free cash flow implies it has the upper hand on its debt. And the good news does not stop there, as its interest cover also supports that impression! Zooming out, VSTECS Holdings seems to use debt quite reasonably; and that gets the nod from us. While debt does bring risk, when used wisely it can also bring a higher return on equity. We'd be motivated to research the stock further if we found out that VSTECS Holdings insiders have bought shares recently. If you would too, then you're in luck, since today we're sharing our list of reported insider transactions for free.

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.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team (at) simplywallst.com.

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.