Yahoo Finance Here's Why We're Watching Celamin Holdings's (ASX:CNL) Cash Burn Situation
We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. By way of example, Celamin Holdings (ASX:CNL) has seen its share price rise 113% over the last year, delighting many shareholders. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.
Given its strong share price performance, we think it's worthwhile for Celamin Holdings shareholders to consider whether its cash burn is concerning. In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.
See our latest analysis for Celamin Holdings
Does Celamin Holdings Have A Long Cash Runway?
A company's cash runway is calculated by dividing its cash hoard by its cash burn. As at December 2019, Celamin Holdings had cash of AU$134k and no debt. Looking at the last year, the company burnt through AU$1.2m. That means it had a cash runway of under two months as of December 2019. It's extremely surprising to us that the company has allowed its cash runway to get that short! You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.
How Is Celamin Holdings's Cash Burn Changing Over Time?
Because Celamin Holdings isn't currently generating revenue, we consider it an early-stage business. Nonetheless, we can still examine its cash burn trajectory as part of our assessment of its cash burn situation. As it happens, the company's cash burn reduced by 23% over the last year, which suggests that management are mindful of the possibility of running out of cash. Celamin Holdings makes us a little nervous due to its lack of substantial operating revenue. So we'd generally prefer stocks from this list of stocks that have analysts forecasting growth.
How Hard Would It Be For Celamin Holdings To Raise More Cash For Growth?
While Celamin Holdings is showing a solid reduction in its cash burn, it's still worth considering how easily it could raise more cash, even just to fuel faster growth. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash to fund growth. We can compare a company's cash burn to its market capitalisation to get a sense for how many new shares a company would have to issue to fund one year's operations.
Since it has a market capitalisation of AU$20m, Celamin Holdings's AU$1.2m in cash burn equates to about 5.9% of its market value. Given that is a rather small percentage, it would probably be really easy for the company to fund another year's growth by issuing some new shares to investors, or even by taking out a loan.
How Risky Is Celamin Holdings's Cash Burn Situation?
Even though its cash runway makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought Celamin Holdings's cash burn relative to its market cap was relatively promising. After looking at that range of measures, we think shareholders should be extremely attentive to how the company is using its cash, as the cash burn makes us uncomfortable. An in-depth examination of risks revealed 4 warning signs for Celamin Holdings that readers should think about before committing capital to this stock.
Of course Celamin Holdings may not be the best stock to buy. So you may wish to see this free collection of companies boasting high return on equity, or this list of stocks that insiders are buying.
If you spot an error that warrants correction, please contact the editor at editorial-team@simplywallst.com. 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. Simply Wall St has no position in the stocks mentioned.
We aim to bring you long-term focused research analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Thank you for reading.
