There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. For example, biotech and mining exploration companies often lose money for years before finding success with a new treatment or mineral discovery. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

Given this risk, we thought we'd take a look at whether Eurasia Mining (LON:EUA) shareholders should be worried about its cash burn. In this article, we define cash burn as its annual (negative) free cash flow, which is the amount of money a company spends each year to fund its growth. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.

See our latest analysis for Eurasia Mining

Does Eurasia Mining Have A Long Cash Runway?

A company's cash runway is the amount of time it would take to burn through its cash reserves at its current cash burn rate. As at December 2020, Eurasia Mining had cash of UK£5.4m and such minimal debt that we can ignore it for the purposes of this analysis. In the last year, its cash burn was UK£2.8m. That means it had a cash runway of around 23 months as of December 2020. Notably, one analyst forecasts that Eurasia Mining will break even (at a free cash flow level) in about 2 years. So there's a very good chance it won't need more cash, when you consider the burn rate will be reducing in that period. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years. debt-equity-history-analysis

How Well Is Eurasia Mining Growing?

Notably, Eurasia Mining actually ramped up its cash burn very hard and fast in the last year, by 109%, signifying heavy investment in the business. As if that's not bad enough, the operating revenue also dropped by 17%, making us very wary indeed. Taken together, we think these growth metrics are a little worrying. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. So you might want to take a peek at how much the company is expected to grow in the next few years.



How Easily Can Eurasia Mining Raise Cash?

Eurasia Mining seems to be in a fairly good position, in terms of cash burn, but we still think it's worthwhile considering how easily it could raise more money if it wanted to. Companies can raise capital through either debt or equity. Commonly, a business will sell new shares in itself to raise cash and drive growth. We can compare a company's cash burn to its market capitalisation to get a sense for how many new shares a company would have to issue to fund one year's operations.

Eurasia Mining has a market capitalisation of UK£647m and burnt through UK£2.8m last year, which is 0.4% of the company's market value. So it could almost certainly just borrow a little to fund another year's growth, or else easily raise the cash by issuing a few shares.

So, Should We Worry About Eurasia Mining's Cash Burn?

It may already be apparent to you that we're relatively comfortable with the way Eurasia Mining is burning through its cash. In particular, we think its cash burn relative to its market cap stands out as evidence that the company is well on top of its spending. While we must concede that its increasing cash burn is a bit worrying, the other factors mentioned in this article provide great comfort when it comes to the cash burn. One real positive is that at least one analyst is forecasting that the company will reach breakeven. Looking at all the measures in this article, together, we're not worried about its rate of cash burn; the company seems well on top of its medium-term spending needs. On another note, we conducted an in-depth investigation of the company, and identified 5 warning signs for Eurasia Mining (1 doesn't sit too well with us!) that you should be aware of before investing here.

If you would prefer to check out another company with better fundamentals, then do not miss this freelist of interesting companies, that have HIGH return on equity and low debt or this list of stocks which are all forecast to grow.

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. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

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