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Will ENM Holdings (HKG:128) Spend Its Cash Wisely?

We can readily understand why investors are attracted to unprofitable companies. For example, although Amazon.com made losses for many years after listing, if you had bought and held the shares since 1999, you would have made a fortune. Nonetheless, only a fool would ignore the risk that a loss making company burns through its cash too quickly.

So, the natural question for ENM Holdings (HKG:128) shareholders is whether they should be concerned by its rate of cash burn. For the purpose of this article, we'll define cash burn as the amount of cash the company is spending each year to fund its growth (also called its negative free cash flow). First, we'll determine its cash runway by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves.

See our latest analysis for ENM Holdings

Does ENM Holdings Have A Long Cash Runway?

You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. ENM Holdings has such a small amount of debt that we'll set it aside, and focus on the HK$782m in cash it held at June 2019. Importantly, its cash burn was HK$313m over the trailing twelve months. Therefore, from June 2019 it had 2.5 years of cash runway. That's decent, giving the company a couple years to develop its business. You can see how its cash balance has changed over time in the image below.

SEHK:128 Historical Debt, February 18th 2020
SEHK:128 Historical Debt, February 18th 2020

How Well Is ENM Holdings Growing?

One thing for shareholders to keep front in mind is that ENM Holdings increased its cash burn by 664% in the last twelve months. While that's concerning on it's own, the fact that operating revenue was actually down 11% over the same period makes us positively tremulous. Considering these two factors together makes us nervous about the direction the company seems to be heading. Of course, we've only taken a quick look at the stock's growth metrics, here. You can take a look at how ENM Holdings has developed its business over time by checking this visualization of its revenue and earnings history.

Can ENM Holdings Raise More Cash Easily?

While ENM Holdings seems to be in a fairly good position, it's still worth considering how easily it could raise more cash, even just to fuel faster growth. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. Many companies end up issuing new shares to fund future growth. By comparing a company's annual cash burn to its total market capitalisation, we can estimate roughly how many shares it would have to issue in order to run the company for another year (at the same burn rate).

Since it has a market capitalisation of HK$1.0b, ENM Holdings's HK$313m in cash burn equates to about 31% of its market value. That's fairly notable cash burn, so if the company had to sell shares to cover the cost of another year's operations, shareholders would suffer some costly dilution.

How Risky Is ENM Holdings's Cash Burn Situation?

Even though its increasing cash burn makes us a little nervous, we are compelled to mention that we thought ENM Holdings's cash runway was relatively promising. We don't think its cash burn is particularly problematic, but after considering the range of factors in this article, we do think shareholders should be monitoring how it changes over time. While we always like to monitor cash burn for early stage companies, qualitative factors such as the CEO pay can also shed light on the situation. Click here to see free what the ENM Holdings CEO is paid..

Of course, you might find a fantastic investment by looking elsewhere. So take a peek at this free list of interesting companies, and this list of stocks growth stocks (according to analyst forecasts)

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.