Is Asian Hotels (East) (NSE:AHLEAST) A Risky Investment?

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.' So it might be obvious that you need to consider debt, when you think about how risky any given stock is, because too much debt can sink a company. We note that Asian Hotels (East) Limited (NSE:AHLEAST) does have debt on its balance sheet. But should shareholders be worried about its use of debt?

What Risk Does Debt Bring?

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. In the worst case scenario, a company can go bankrupt if it cannot pay its creditors. 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. Of course, plenty of companies use debt to fund growth, without any negative consequences. The first thing to do when considering how much debt a business uses is to look at its cash and debt together.

View our latest analysis for Asian Hotels (East)

How Much Debt Does Asian Hotels (East) Carry?

The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that at March 2022 Asian Hotels (East) had debt of ₹1.41b, up from ₹1.04b in one year. On the flip side, it has ₹990.1m in cash leading to net debt of about ₹416.4m.

A Look At Asian Hotels (East)'s Liabilities

Zooming in on the latest balance sheet data, we can see that Asian Hotels (East) had liabilities of ₹1.05b due within 12 months and liabilities of ₹1.24b due beyond that. Offsetting this, it had ₹990.1m in cash and ₹134.9m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by ₹1.17b.

This deficit isn't so bad because Asian Hotels (East) is worth ₹3.35b, 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. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But it is Asian Hotels (East)'s earnings that will influence how the balance sheet holds up in the future. So if you're keen to discover more about its earnings, it might be worth checking out this graph of its long term earnings trend.

In the last year Asian Hotels (East) wasn't profitable at an EBIT level, but managed to grow its revenue by 86%, to ₹1.3b. With any luck the company will be able to grow its way to profitability.

Caveat Emptor

Even though Asian Hotels (East) managed to grow its top line quite deftly, the cold hard truth is that it is losing money on the EBIT line. Indeed, it lost ₹54m at the EBIT level. Considering that alongside the liabilities mentioned above does not give us much confidence that company should be using so much debt. So we think its balance sheet is a little strained, though not beyond repair. Another cause for caution is that is bled ₹130m in negative free cash flow over the last twelve months. So suffice it to say we do consider the stock to be risky. 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. These risks can be hard to spot. Every company has them, and we've spotted 2 warning signs for Asian Hotels (East) (of which 1 shouldn't be ignored!) you should know about.

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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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.