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 might be obvious that you need to consider debt, when you think about how risky any given stock is, because too much debt can sink a company. We can see that DFI Retail Group Holdings Limited (SGX:D01) does use debt in its business. But is this debt a concern to shareholders?

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 common (but still painful) scenario is that it has to raise new equity capital at a low price, thus permanently diluting shareholders. By replacing dilution, though, debt can be an extremely good tool for businesses that need capital to invest in growth at high rates of return. When we examine debt levels, we first consider both cash and debt levels, together.

What Is DFI Retail Group Holdings's Net Debt?

As you can see below, DFI Retail Group Holdings had US$94.7m of debt at June 2025, down from US$862.2m a year prior. However, its balance sheet shows it holds US$537.2m in cash, so it actually has US$442.5m net cash.

SGX:D01 Debt to Equity History July 23rd 2025

How Strong Is DFI Retail Group Holdings' Balance Sheet?

The latest balance sheet data shows that DFI Retail Group Holdings had liabilities of US$2.50b due within a year, and liabilities of US$2.38b falling due after that. Offsetting this, it had US$537.2m in cash and US$200.9m in receivables that were due within 12 months. So it has liabilities totalling US$4.14b more than its cash and near-term receivables, combined.

This deficit is considerable relative to its market capitalization of US$4.67b, so it does suggest shareholders should keep an eye on DFI Retail Group Holdings' use of debt. This suggests shareholders would be heavily diluted if the company needed to shore up its balance sheet in a hurry. Despite its noteworthy liabilities, DFI Retail Group Holdings boasts net cash, so it's fair to say it does not have a heavy debt load!

Check out our latest analysis for DFI Retail Group Holdings

Unfortunately, DFI Retail Group Holdings's EBIT flopped 13% over the last four quarters. If earnings continue to decline at that rate then handling the debt will be more difficult than taking three children under 5 to a fancy pants restaurant. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately the future profitability of the business will decide if DFI Retail Group Holdings can strengthen its balance sheet over time. So if you want to see what the professionals think, you might find this free report on analyst profit forecasts to be interesting.

But our final consideration is also important, because a company cannot pay debt with paper profits; it needs cold hard cash. While DFI Retail Group Holdings has net cash on its balance sheet, it's still worth taking a look at its ability to convert earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to free cash flow, to help us understand how quickly it is building (or eroding) that cash balance. Happily for any shareholders, DFI Retail Group Holdings actually produced more free cash flow than EBIT over the last three years. That sort of strong cash conversion gets us as excited as the crowd when the beat drops at a Daft Punk concert.

Summing Up

Although DFI Retail Group Holdings's balance sheet isn't particularly strong, due to the total liabilities, it is clearly positive to see that it has net cash of US$442.5m. And it impressed us with free cash flow of US$849m, being 353% of its EBIT. So although we see some areas for improvement, we're not too worried about DFI Retail Group Holdings's balance sheet. When analysing debt levels, the balance sheet is the obvious place to start. But ultimately, every company can contain risks that exist outside of the balance sheet. For example - DFI Retail Group Holdings has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of.