Debt Capacity - Project Assumptions
- 03:07
Review the project assumptions.
Glossary
Bond issuance Profit Margins Project revenuesTranscript
We've been asked to analyze whether investing in new laboratory facilities during 2025 is going to be feasible for Charles River Laboratories without negatively affecting their current credit rating, a double B plus. And the first thing that we need to do to achieve this is to just document what those credit ratios are. On this activity tab, we're told that the debt to book equity shouldn't exceed 75%. That net debt to EBITDA shouldn't exceed 2.5 times, and that the EBITDA to interest expense coverage ratio should have a minimum of six. What we then need to do is to adjust the model that we've been given on the model tab to take account of all of the information that we've been given in the instructions. So that's what we're gonna do. Now, if we go down below the assumptions, we've been given some space to add in the new assumptions that we need to assess and analyze this new project. So the first thing that we need to do is to add in the bond issuance. And here what we're told is that we're looking to issue a $650 million bond with five years to maturity during 2025. So we're gonna add in the 650, this is the issuance happening in 2025. There'll be no bond issuance in any of the later years, but then we will have the bond being redeemed after five years in 2030, giving us a cash outflow of the bond being redeemed. The next assumption that we've gotta deal with is the fact that the facilities are gonna add revenues of 300 million from 2027 onwards. So let's add an assumption for project revenues, which are gonna be zero in 2025 and 2026, but then we'll be 300 million in every year thereafter. The next assumption is to look at our profit margins and they're gonna be the same as our underlying sales, but we're also told there'll be some additional setup costs of 180 million in 2026 and 2027. So we've got 180 in 2026 and 180 in 2027, and then zero in every other year. Now we do need to be a little bit careful here 'cause we're told that these are not gonna be capitalized, but they're gonna be expensed in ebitda. So just to give myself a helping hand here, we're going to note this here as well 'cause it'd be really easy to forget about later. We're also told that there is CapEx of 500 million to be associated with project that's gonna be incurred in 2025 and 2026. And I'm going to assume that is gonna be evenly split between the two years. So that's 250 in 2025 and another 250 in 2026. The final thing that we've got to add in as an assumption is the interest rates on our new bond, which we're told in the scenario, is gonna be 5.3% and that's gonna be consistent across all six years of this forecast period.