Kritika Wires (NSE:KRITIKA) Has A Pretty Healthy Balance Sheet

Warren Buffett famously said, 'Volatility is far from synonymous with risk.' 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. As with many other companies Kritika Wires Limited (NSE:KRITIKA) makes use of debt. But the real question is whether this debt is making the company risky.

Why Does Debt Bring Risk?

Generally speaking, debt only becomes a real problem when a company can't easily pay it off, either by raising capital or with its own cash flow. Ultimately, if the company can't fulfill its legal obligations to repay debt, shareholders could walk away with nothing. 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. When we think about a company's use of debt, we first look at cash and debt together.

View our latest analysis for Kritika Wires

What Is Kritika Wires's Debt?

The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that at September 2022 Kritika Wires had debt of ₹385.4m, up from ₹311.1m in one year. However, it does have ₹44.9m in cash offsetting this, leading to net debt of about ₹340.5m.

A Look At Kritika Wires' Liabilities

According to the last reported balance sheet, Kritika Wires had liabilities of ₹609.2m due within 12 months, and liabilities of ₹39.8m due beyond 12 months. Offsetting this, it had ₹44.9m in cash and ₹550.1m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So its liabilities total ₹54.1m more than the combination of its cash and short-term receivables.

Since publicly traded Kritika Wires shares are worth a total of ₹1.11b, it seems unlikely that this level of liabilities would be a major threat. However, we do think it is worth keeping an eye on its balance sheet strength, as it may change over time.

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). The advantage of this approach is that we take into account both the absolute quantum of debt (with net debt to EBITDA) and the actual interest expenses associated with that debt (with its interest cover ratio).

Kritika Wires has a debt to EBITDA ratio of 3.5 and its EBIT covered its interest expense 5.1 times. Taken together this implies that, while we wouldn't want to see debt levels rise, we think it can handle its current leverage. Notably, Kritika Wires's EBIT launched higher than Elon Musk, gaining a whopping 652% on last year. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. But it is Kritika Wires'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.

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. Over the last three years, Kritika Wires recorded negative free cash flow, in total. Debt is far more risky for companies with unreliable free cash flow, so shareholders should be hoping that the past expenditure will produce free cash flow in the future.

Our View

When it comes to the balance sheet, the standout positive for Kritika Wires was the fact that it seems able to grow its EBIT confidently. However, our other observations weren't so heartening. In particular, conversion of EBIT to free cash flow gives us cold feet. When we consider all the elements mentioned above, it seems to us that Kritika Wires is managing its debt quite well. 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. These risks can be hard to spot. Every company has them, and we've spotted 4 warning signs for Kritika Wires (of which 2 can't be ignored!) 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.

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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.