The Debt Wall
EliteRanked by leverage — net debt vs the cash flow that services itLeverage = net debt ÷ trailing free cash flow — how many years of cash flow the net debt equals. “Burning” means net debt with negative FCF (nothing internal services it). The 1-year column is principal due from the disclosed maturity schedule; a dash means no schedule was disclosed, not that nothing is due. Sourced from SEC EDGAR XBRL. Not investment advice.
How it works
Ours. Debt is not dangerous in itself. Debt that falls due before the cash to repay it arrives is. This screen measures net debt against the free cash flow that has to service it, and looks at what matures inside twelve months.
Companies sitting on net cash are excluded, and so are banks and insurers, where borrowing is the business rather than a strain on it.
When it misleads
One weak year of free cash flow makes ordinary leverage look catastrophic. Read the ratio against the company's own history before reading it against this list.
Refinancing is routine. A maturity wall only bites if credit markets are shut to that particular borrower on the day it arrives, and no balance-sheet ratio can see that coming.
This screen ranks the most fragile names first, so we don’t publish its list — naming companies as distressed on a public page isn’t something a screening model should do on its own. What today’s run found, in aggregate: