THE GHOST TRAIN
THE FINANCE GHOST: When the capital stack gets ugly
For investors, be careful of management teams who are juicing up returns with regular corporate actions funded by debt
If you’re only looking at the income statement when figuring out which shares to buy, you are suffering from a huge blind spot in your investment analysis. Not sure why? Have a look in a dark, sad corner for a shareholder in Steinhoff, Nampak or Tongaat. In a pool of tears, you’ll find some of the answers.
The income statement tells you a lot about how the company makes money and very little about where that money goes. You can have the most profitable business in the world, but if the keys are held by the bank and the preference shareholders, it hardly matters. As an ordinary shareholder, you can be stuck outside the window in the snow, watching everyone else eat the Christmas gammon...
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