Is IHH Healthcare Berhad (KLSE:IHH) Using Too Much Debt?

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 seems the smart money knows that debt - which is usually involved in bankruptcies - is a very important factor, when you assess how risky a company is. We note that IHH Healthcare Berhad (KLSE:IHH) does have debt on its balance sheet. But the real question is whether this debt is making the company risky.

What Risk Does Debt Bring?

Debt and other liabilities become risky for a business when it cannot easily fulfill those obligations, either with free cash flow or by raising capital at an attractive price. If things get really bad, the lenders can take control of the business. However, a more frequent (but still costly) occurrence is where a company must issue shares at bargain-basement prices, permanently diluting shareholders, just to shore up its balance sheet. 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.

See our latest analysis for IHH Healthcare Berhad

How Much Debt Does IHH Healthcare Berhad Carry?

The image below, which you can click on for greater detail, shows that at December 2020 IHH Healthcare Berhad had debt of RM9.69b, up from RM9.04b in one year. However, it also had RM4.61b in cash, and so its net debt is RM5.08b.

How Healthy Is IHH Healthcare Berhad's Balance Sheet?

Zooming in on the latest balance sheet data, we can see that IHH Healthcare Berhad had liabilities of RM5.62b due within 12 months and liabilities of RM11.9b due beyond that. On the other hand, it had cash of RM4.61b and RM1.97b worth of receivables due within a year. So its liabilities outweigh the sum of its cash and (near-term) receivables by RM10.9b.

This deficit isn't so bad because IHH Healthcare Berhad is worth a massive RM47.5b, and thus could probably raise enough capital to shore up its balance sheet, if the need arose. However, it is still worthwhile taking a close look at its ability to pay off debt.

In order to size up a company's debt relative to its earnings, we calculate its net debt divided by its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) and its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) divided by its interest expense (its interest cover). Thus we consider debt relative to earnings both with and without depreciation and amortization expenses.

IHH Healthcare Berhad's net debt is sitting at a very reasonable 2.0 times its EBITDA, while its EBIT covered its interest expense just 3.7 times last year. While that doesn't worry us too much, it does suggest the interest payments are somewhat of a burden. Shareholders should be aware that IHH Healthcare Berhad's EBIT was down 27% last year. If that decline continues then paying off debt will be harder than selling foie gras at a vegan convention. There's no doubt that we learn most about debt from the balance sheet. But it is future earnings, more than anything, that will determine IHH Healthcare Berhad's ability to maintain a healthy balance sheet going forward. So if you want to see what the professionals think, you might find this free report on analyst profit forecasts to be interesting.

Finally, a business needs free cash flow to pay off debt; accounting profits just don't cut it. So we clearly need to look at whether that EBIT is leading to corresponding free cash flow. Over the most recent three years, IHH Healthcare Berhad recorded free cash flow worth 73% of its EBIT, which is around normal, given free cash flow excludes interest and tax. This free cash flow puts the company in a good position to pay down debt, when appropriate.

Our View

Based on what we've seen IHH Healthcare Berhad is not finding it easy, given its EBIT growth rate, but the other factors we considered give us cause to be optimistic. There's no doubt that its ability to to convert EBIT to free cash flow is pretty flash. We would also note that Healthcare industry companies like IHH Healthcare Berhad commonly do use debt without problems. When we consider all the factors mentioned above, we do feel a bit cautious about IHH Healthcare Berhad's use of debt. While we appreciate debt can enhance returns on equity, we'd suggest that shareholders keep close watch on its debt levels, lest they increase. The balance sheet is clearly the area to focus on when you are analysing debt. However, not all investment risk resides within the balance sheet - far from it. For example, we've discovered 2 warning signs for IHH Healthcare Berhad that you should be aware of before investing here.

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.

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