These 4 Measures Indicate That Jin Yang Pharmaceutical (KOSDAQ:007370) Is Using Debt Safely

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. As with many other companies Jin Yang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ:007370) makes use of debt. But the more important question is: how much risk is that debt creating?

When Is Debt Dangerous?

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. If things get really bad, the lenders can take control of the business. 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, the upside of debt is that it often represents cheap capital, especially when it replaces dilution in a company with the ability to reinvest at high rates of return. 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 Jin Yang Pharmaceutical

How Much Debt Does Jin Yang Pharmaceutical Carry?

The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that Jin Yang Pharmaceutical had debt of ₩6.00b at the end of September 2020, a reduction from ₩9.00b over a year. However, it also had ₩3.43b in cash, and so its net debt is ₩2.57b.

How Healthy Is Jin Yang Pharmaceutical's Balance Sheet?

Zooming in on the latest balance sheet data, we can see that Jin Yang Pharmaceutical had liabilities of ₩17.0b due within 12 months and liabilities of ₩4.75b due beyond that. On the other hand, it had cash of ₩3.43b and ₩15.7b worth of receivables due within a year. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by ₩2.70b.

Since publicly traded Jin Yang Pharmaceutical shares are worth a total of ₩71.1b, 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).

Jin Yang Pharmaceutical has a low debt to EBITDA ratio of only 0.61. And remarkably, despite having net debt, it actually received more in interest over the last twelve months than it had to pay. So there's no doubt this company can take on debt while staying cool as a cucumber. Better yet, Jin Yang Pharmaceutical grew its EBIT by 329% last year, which is an impressive improvement. That boost will make it even easier to pay down debt going forward. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But it is Jin Yang Pharmaceutical's earnings that will influence how the balance sheet holds up in the future. So when considering debt, it's definitely worth looking at the earnings trend. Click here for an interactive snapshot.

But our final consideration is also important, because a company cannot pay debt with paper profits; it needs cold hard cash. So the logical step is to look at the proportion of that EBIT that is matched by actual free cash flow. Over the last two years, Jin Yang Pharmaceutical actually produced more free cash flow than EBIT. That sort of strong cash conversion gets us as excited as the crowd when the beat drops at a Daft Punk concert.

Our View

Jin Yang Pharmaceutical's interest cover suggests it can handle its debt as easily as Cristiano Ronaldo could score a goal against an under 14's goalkeeper. And the good news does not stop there, as its conversion of EBIT to free cash flow also supports that impression! We think Jin Yang Pharmaceutical is no more beholden to its lenders, than the birds are to birdwatchers. To our minds it has a healthy happy balance sheet. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. However, not all investment risk resides within the balance sheet - far from it. We've identified 2 warning signs with Jin Yang Pharmaceutical , and understanding them should be part of your investment process.

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. 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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