Capital Allocation Trends At George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad (KLSE:GKENT) Aren't Ideal

If you're not sure where to start when looking for the next multi-bagger, there are a few key trends you should keep an eye out for. Firstly, we'll want to see a proven return on capital employed (ROCE) that is increasing, and secondly, an expanding base 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. Having said that, from a first glance at George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad (KLSE:GKENT) we aren't jumping out of our chairs at how returns are trending, but let's have a deeper look.

Understanding Return On Capital Employed (ROCE)

Just to clarify if you're unsure, ROCE is a metric for evaluating how much pre-tax income (in percentage terms) a company earns on the capital invested in its business. Analysts use this formula to calculate it for George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad:

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

0.13 = RM70m ÷ (RM715m - RM192m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to January 2021).

Therefore, George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad has an ROCE of 13%. In absolute terms, that's a satisfactory return, but compared to the Construction industry average of 5.9% it's much better.

Check out our latest analysis for George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad

In the above chart we have measured George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad's prior ROCE against its prior performance, but the future is arguably more important. If you're interested, you can view the analysts predictions in our free report on analyst forecasts for the company.

What The Trend Of ROCE Can Tell Us

When we looked at the ROCE trend at George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad, we didn't gain much confidence. Around five years ago the returns on capital were 28%, but since then they've fallen to 13%. And considering revenue has dropped while employing more capital, we'd be cautious. If this were to continue, you might be looking at a company that is trying to reinvest for growth but is actually losing market share since sales haven't increased.

On a related note, George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad has decreased its current liabilities to 27% of total assets. That could partly explain why the ROCE has dropped. What's more, this can reduce some aspects of risk to the business because now the company's suppliers or short-term creditors are funding less of its operations. 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.

The Bottom Line On George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad's ROCE

We're a bit apprehensive about George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad because despite more capital being deployed in the business, returns on that capital and sales have both fallen. And, the stock has remained flat over the last five years, so investors don't seem too impressed either. Unless there is a shift to a more positive trajectory in these metrics, we would look elsewhere.

If you'd like to know more about George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad, we've spotted 3 warning signs, and 1 of them is a bit unpleasant.

While George Kent (Malaysia) Berhad may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.

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