Solvency Ratios

What are Solvency Ratios?

Solvency Ratios are the ratios which are calculated to judge the financial position of the organization from a long-term solvency point of view. These ratios measure the firm’s ability to satisfy its long-term obligations and are closely tracked by investors to understand and appreciate the ability of the business to meet its long-term liabilities and help them in decision making for long-term investment of their funds in the business.

• Accordingly, Solvency ratios are calculated for judging the financial position to ascertain whether the business is financially sound to meet its long-term commitments.
• Solvency Ratios analyzes the ability of a business to pay its Long-term debt. It is important to note here that the portion of Shareholder’s Funds (Owner’s Equity) out of the total liabilities determines the Solvency of an Organization.
• The higher the Shareholder’s Funds compared to other liabilities of the Organization, the greater the Solvency business enjoys and vice versa.

List of Solvency Ratios

List of important Solvency ratios are discussed below followed by a Numerical example:

#1 – Long-Term Debt- to- Equity Ratio

This solvency ratio formula aims to determine the amount of long-term debt business has undertaken vis-à-vis the Equity and helps in finding the leverage of the business. Here Long-Term Debt includes long-term loans i.e. Debentures or Long-term loans taken from Financial Institutions and Equity means Shareholders’ Funds i.e. Equity Share Capital, Preference Share Capital and Reserves in the form of Retained Earnings. The Ratio also helps in identifying how much Long-term debt business has raise compared to its Equity Contribution.

Solvency Ratio Formula:

#2 – Total Debt- to- Equity Ratio

This solvency ratio formula aims to determine the amount of total debt (which includes both short-term debt and long-term debt) a business has undertaken vis-à-vis the Equity and helps in finding the total leverage of the business. The Ratio helps in identifying how much business is funded by debt compared to Equity Contribution. In nutshell higher, the ratio, higher the leverage and higher is the risk on account of heavy debt obligation (in the form of Interest and Principal Payments) on the part of the business

Solvency Ratio Formula:

#3 – Debt Ratio

This Ratio aims to determine the proportion of total Assets of the company (which includes both Current Assets and Non-Current Assets) which are financed by Debt and helps in assessing the total leverage of the business. The higher the ratio, higher the leverage and higher is the financial risk on account of heavy debt obligation (in the form of Interest and Principal Payments) on the part of the business

Solvency Ratio Formula:

#4 – Financial Leverage

The Financial Leverage ratio captures the impact of all obligation, both interest-bearing and non-interest bearing. This Ratio aims to determine how much of the business assets belong to the Shareholders of the company rather than the Debt holders /Creditors. Accordingly, if the majority of the assets are funded by Equity Shareholders, the business will be less leveraged compared to the majority of the assets funded by Debt (in that case the business will be more leveraged). The higher the ratio, higher the leverage and higher is the financial risk on account of heavy debt obligation taken to finance the assets of the business

Solvency Ratio Formula:

#5 – Proprietary Ratio

This Ratio establishes the relationship between Shareholders’ funds and total assets of the business.  It indicates the extent to which shareholders funds have been invested in the assets of the business. The higher the ratio, the lesser the leverage and comparatively less is the financial risk on the part of the business. Conversely, it can be calculated by taking the inverse of Financial Leverage Ratio.

Solvency Ratio Formula:

Example of Solvency Ratios

Let’s understand the above Ratios with the help of a Numerical example for better conceptual clarity:

Alpha and Beta are two companies operating in the same line of business of Leather Shoe Manufacturing which has furnished certain details from their Balance Sheet at the end of the year. Let’s analyze the Solvency of the two business based on the same.

Now, let’s see the formula and calculation for the Solvency Ratios below:

In the below-given figure, we have done the calculation for various solvency ratios.

Based on the above Ratios we can observe a few interesting insights:

• Alpha Company is having a higher Long-Term Debt to Equity Ratio compared to Beta Company but a lower Total Debt to Equity ratio compared to Beta which is an indication that Beta Company is using more short-term debt financing to fund itself and will be more prone to liquidity risks in case the short-term rates moved adversely.
• Both the companies are having the same level of Total Debt; however, due to increase equity Contribution, Alpha Company is having less financial Leverage compared to Beta Company.

Conclusion

It must be noted that the various Solvency Ratios discussed above should not be seen in isolation but should be considered collectively which will help stakeholders better understand and appreciate the importance of these ratios and make a better judgment related to the long-term solvency and ability of the business to honor its financial commitments and continue being a value creator.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to What is Solvency Ratios. Here we discuss the list of Solvency Ratio formulas, its calculations along with practical examples.  You may also have a look at some useful articles below –

• Formula of Equity Ratio
• Debt to Equity Ratio Formula
• Current Portion of Long-Term Debt on Balance Sheet
• Debt Covenants Examples 
• Explain Leveraged Finance