RE:RE:RE:Disappointing Debt went down because they spent $107 million they had on hand at the end of 2022. Almost all of the debt decrease had nothing to do with Q1 operations. By focusing on long-term debt they ignore the fact that it wasn't due to Q1 operations. At best they are cherry picking stats to look good. Seriously, which financials did you look at ?
- Adjusted funds flow (“AFF”) of $274 million, or $0.94 per share, and $348 million of funds flow from operating activities (“FFO”);
- Free cash flow (“FCF”) of $161 million, after $113 million of capital expenditures;
- so they had $ 161 million to play with to reduce debt and buy shares after spending $ 133M on capex
- they actually spent $ 117M (USD 86 M on buying back 7.125% 2027 Notes) on debt cancellation and $ 103M (~ 4.9 M @ $ 20.88 per MEG share) on NCIB share buybacks which is a total of $ 220 million
- the difference, $ 59 million was taken from the cash pile balance
- the cash balance was lowered by more than the $ 59 million due to the pile up in the AR balance brought about by the timing of the negative working capital movements
Cash and cash equivalents:
@ 12/31/2022: 192 million
@ 3/31/2023: 85 million
Trade receivables and other (AR):
@ 12/31/2022: 488 million
@ 3/31/2023: 588 million
z173