What is the Revolving Credit Facility?
Revolving Credit Facility is one of the forms of business finance in which flexibility is provided to the companies to borrow and use the funds of the financial institution according to their cash flow needs by paying a commitment fee as agreed in the agreement with the financial institution.
Revolving Credit Facilities are basically pre-approved corporate loan facilities (just like credit cards) wherein corporate can avail a loan without any further documentation and there are no fixed repayments schedules for the same.
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For eg:
Source: Revolving Credit Facilities (wallstreetmojo.com)
How Revolving Credit Facilities Works?
- The small business owner will talk to the bank about a credit facility. Bank will ask for a mortgage. Usually, for business owners, inventories or accounts receivablesAccounts ReceivablesAccounts receivables refer to the amount due on the customers for the credit sales of the products or services made by the company to them. It appears as a current asset in the corporate balance sheet.read more act as mortgages.
- Bank hands the business owners a revolving account where there is the pre-approved limit. If the business owners want to use little, she can do so. On the rest of the amount, interest is being charged by the bank. For example, if the pre-approved limit is $30,000 and the small business owner only needs around $3000, the bank will charge interest on the outstanding amount.
- And if the business owner doesn’t take more credit facilities, she can pay back the amount in whichever ways she wants. There is no fixed monthly payment. The business owner can pay back the amount in 6 installments (the principal plus the interest) or in one go.
Now, you may wonder what the bank does if the small business owner fails to pay off the amount.
The bank values the inventories or the accounts receivables at 80% and then sell off the inventories or accounts receivables if the business owner fails to pay off the loan amount she has taken.
How to interpret Revolving Credit Facilities?
Many companies in the US use the flexibility of such credit and usually, you will find that they report back on their balance sheet.
Let’s say, a company has taken a revolving credit facility from a bank. Now, where the company would report its revolving credit in the financial statementsFinancial StatementsFinancial statements are written reports prepared by a company's management to present the company's financial affairs over a given period (quarter, six monthly or yearly). These statements, which include the Balance Sheet, Income Statement, Cash Flows, and Shareholders Equity Statement, must be prepared in accordance with prescribed and standardized accounting standards to ensure uniformity in reporting at all levels.read more?
They would first set up their balance sheet. They will go to the section of debt and then usually, they will mention a note below the balance sheet where they will report about what exactly happens in regards to a revolving line of credit.
Now, what if they don’t mention?
Then it would be difficult for an investor to find out where the debt (the figure) has come from. If the company has done the calculation but doesn’t show the calculation and the exact narration of how it happened under the balance sheet, it wouldn’t be possible for the investor to understand it.
The filing system under sec filings is done to ensure that the investors’ interest is secured. Not showing or mentioning a revolving line of creditLine Of CreditA line of credit is an agreement between a customer and a bank, allowing the customer a ceiling limit of borrowing. The borrower can access any amount within the credit limit and pays interest; this provides flexibility to run a business.read more will be treated as non-disclosure and will not help the investor at all.
In the example below, we will show you how you would be able to do that.
Revolving Credit Facility Example
Balance Sheet of ABC Company
| Stockholders’ Equity | Amount | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Preferred Stock | 550,000 | 550,000 |
| Common Stock | 50,00,000 | 50,00,000 |
| Retained EarningsRetained EarningsRetained Earnings are defined as the cumulative earnings earned by the company till the date after adjusting for the distribution of the dividend or the other distributions to the investors of the company. It is shown as the part of owner’s equity in the liability side of the balance sheet of the company.read more | 250,000 | 150,000 |
| Total Stockholders’ Equity | 58,00,000 | 57,00,000 |
| Total liabilities & Stockholders’ Equity | 61,15,000 | 61,10,000 |
This is the balance sheet we have. Now we will see how to represent the revolving credit facility. You can see an asterisk on Long term debtTerm DebtLong-term debt is the debt taken by the company that gets due or is payable after one year on the date of the balance sheet. It is recorded on the liabilities side of the company's balance sheet as the non-current liability.read more.
Let’s look at the note.
| Particulars | 2016 (in US $) | 2015 (In US $) |
|---|---|---|
| Notes due in 2020 | 120,000 | 140,000 |
| Revolving Credit Facility | 25,000 | 20,000 |
| 145,000 | 160,000 | |
| (-) Short-term debt including credit facility | (50,000) | (80,000) |
| Long-term debt | 95,000 | 80,000 |
In 2015, ABC Company has taken a revolving credit facility of US $50,000 from RVS Commercial Bank. They wanted to expand upon their operations by buying a new machine for their production house. So, in 2015, they took US $20,000 which was payable within 3 months of borrowing. That’s the reason it was treated under short-term debt. In 2016 as well, they took a revolving credit of US $25,000 from the same bank and the payment was due within 90 days of borrowing. So in this case as well, the revolving credit was included in the short-term debt.
In reality, it is much more complex (we will see in the practical examples).
Nestle Example
A consolidated balance sheet as at 31st December 2016 & 2015
Source – Nestle Annual Report
The above balance sheet is the depiction of the long term and short term debt of Nestle in the years 2015 and 2016.
Let’s have a look at how they report revolving credit facility under “notes” in their annual report. They have mentioned it under Liquidity Risk Management.
They have mentioned that they didn’t expect any refinancingRefinancingRefinancing is defined as taking a new debt obligation in exchange for an ongoing debt obligation. In other words, it is merely an act of replacing an ongoing debt obligation with a further debt obligation concerning specific terms and conditions like interest rates tenure.read more issues and they have two revolving credits. In the year 2016, they would have extended both of their revolving credits by one year. Along with that, the key factors of the note are –
- Firstly, they had mentioned about two new revolving credit (of the US $4.1 billion and of EUR 2.3 billion) with an initial maturity date of October 2017. It had also been mentioned that the group has the ability to convert (if at all) in a one-year term loan.
- Secondly, they had also mentioned about the existing facilities and their extended maturity date. The new maturity date of these revolving credit facilities (one of US $3.0 billion and another of EUR 1.8 billion) had been mentioned as October 2021.
- Thirdly, they had also remarked that these facilities should be treated as a backstop to their short-term debt.
WalMart Example
A consolidated balance sheet of Wal-Mart as at 31st January 2017 & 2016
source: WalMart 10K Report
Now, we will see how they have represented the revolving credit facilities. The above balance sheet of Wal-Mart has portrayed the short term borrowings and long-term debts.
In their annual report, they had a note in regard to short-term borrowings and long-term debts. Under that note, they have talked about their credit facilities.
First of all, they had mentioned about their short-term borrowings which are depicted in the following representation –
source: WalMart 10K Report
Wal-Mart had been committed with 23 institutions, combining them to the US $15 billion as of 31st January 2017 and 2016. Let’s have a glimpse of that in the table below –
source: WalMart 10K Report
They had also mentioned in the note that they had extended both a five-year credit facility and a 364-day revolving credit facility in June 2016.
Revolving Credit Facility vs Credit Cards – Key Differences
It may seem like a credit card for small business owners, but it’s not. There are many differences. Let’s have a look at them one by one –
- In the case of a credit card, the person needs to carry it. But in the case of revolving credit facilities, the person doesn’t need to carry any card.
- While using a credit card, the individual needs to make a purchase. But in the case of revolving credit facilities, the person doesn’t need to make any transaction. She can get the money directly into her business account for whatever reason she needs it.
- The fees charged for a credit card is often much more than the fees charged for the revolving credit facilities.
- Flexibility in terms of credit is much more in revolving credit facilities than a credit card.
Revolving Credit Video
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In the final analysis
The revolving credit facility is a boon for many small business owners. Even giant companies are also taking advantage of this thing.
As an investor, if you would like to know where the company has reported its revolving credit facility, look at their annual report and find notes regarding risk management, a credit agreement or short term or long term borrowings.
