Iggy's Journal: The Acquisition Trap: How a Single Deal Can Make Any Company's Balance Sheet Look Terrible for a Year
27 August 2026, PM
Video Release:
New masterclass is up. Sembcorp's Net Debt to EBITDA jumped to 11.9x on paper this half, and on its own that number looks like a red flag. But Alinta Energy only closed on 11 June, so H1 2026 carries roughly two weeks of its earnings while the full acquisition debt landed in full. Brokers' pro-forma estimate puts the same ratio near 4.6x, a genuinely different picture depending on which number you anchor to.
Still Thinking This Through:
If you're holding Sembcorp for dividend stability in your CPF or SRS pot, my honest read is this looks like a timing distortion, not an immediate red flag, but I'm not calling it clean either. Iggy's Forensic Zone: NONE, I need Sembcorp's own debt maturity note and finance cost breakdown before I'd trust either the scary 11.9x or the comforting 4.6x. Until I have that, I'm treating the leverage as unverified, not resolved, and I'd rather sit with that discomfort than round it off in either direction.
Not financial advice. Iggy's Forensic Compliance Standards apply.
📺 YouTube: https://youtu.be/ljEjU83ES8M
📩 Substack: https://investingiguana.com/p/the-acquisition-trap-how-a-single
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Cheers, Iggy 🦖
