Technically gearing is calculated by the total debts over the total assets. The total debts consists of short-term debts (to be repaid in less than a year) and long-term debts (to be repaid more than a year later). For some REITs, we may have to factor in Debt Securities such as the Convertible Bonds issued. Information on debts and assets can be found in the quarterly earnings or annual report, under the Balance Sheet statement.
Again we use the CMT quarterly statement as for illustration purpose. Following is the CMT Q3 2009 balance sheet:
(Click on image to enlarge)
From the balance sheet:
Total assets = Total non-current assets + Total current assets
= 7,070,514 + 377,484
= 7,447,998
Note that some balance sheets may quote the total assets directly.
To derive the total debts, look for Short term borrowings under Current Liabilities, and Long term borrowings under Non-current Liabilities add them up. In the of CMT, we also need to add the item Debt Securities under Non-current Liabilities. Debt securities in this case relates mainly to the Convertible Bonds issued by CMT for funding purpose.
Total debts = Short term borrowings + Long term borrowings + Debt Securities
= 440,000 + 1,148,029 + 609,827
= 2,197,856
We can also find out the total debts from the Aggregate amount of borrowings and debt securities section of the earnings report if it is available. Again we use the CMT report for illustration.
Here we can straight away get the total debts from the Grand total = 2,197,856
So latest gearing for CMT is as follows:
Gearing = Total Debts/Total Assets
= 2,197,856/7,447,998 x 100%
= 29.5%
So far I have covered the technical definition of gearing and how to derive it from the earnings report. I shall touch on more about effect of gearing on REITs in future postings.
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- All About REIT - The Basics Part 4: Gearing Limit
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thx bro, i like this series.
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