Callouts & quotes from 291+ activist slides

"A company levered only 2x requires ~45bps less margin expansion per year to achieve the same EPS growth than an identical company with no debt"

"The majority of the committed liquidity Carvana represents as "available" is not available for its most pressing concern: servicing its debt."

"In Q3 2018, INGN lowered provisions in two categories, sales returns and bad debts and warranties. Doing so increased gross margin by 1.77%."

"In general, we only need to add Debt and subtract Cash from Equity Value. Therefore, you can just say that formula by default in interviews."

"We find a cumulative delta of approximately $320m, which corresponds approximately with the amount of debt increased on the balance sheet."

"If CCI is unwilling to increase its dividend payout ratio today, we recommend CCI immediately increase leverage to 7.0x net debt / EBITDA"

"What we see is that the cash equivalent in Megalab is not cash but, instead, a debt that the Spanish cash pooling entity owes to Megalab."

"Spruce Point believes that current market data services fail to account for Saputo's growing $724 million unfunded U.K. debt obligation."

"We believe ADT should immediately increase leverage to 3.0x Net Debt / EBITDA and maintain a fixed leverage target of 3.0x going forward"

"TWX, as a consolidated entity, should have up to $20.0 billion of debt capacity without jeopardizing an investment grade credit rating."

"ROAD levered its balance sheet to acquire LSP (and Overland Corp.) and now has pro forma Net Debt / Adj. EBITDA of approximately 3.4x."

"As you can see below, RILY's debtors almost uniformly live in the right tail (distressed) end of their industry default distributions."

"Given ability to raise capital via debt markets or raise proceeds from infrastructure, Hess Resource Co. has ample cash to standalone"

"We believe a reasonable amount of non-recourse leverage, especially if the debt is high-quality, is more of an asset than a liability"

"GGP’s bankruptcy is the result of the unprecedented disruption in the credit markets coinciding with large near-term debt maturities"

"Having incinerated ~$360MM of cash since 2012, the debt requires new debt or equity to be repaid - in our opinion, a textbook Ponzi."

"In an LBO, we care more about Levered Free Cash Flow because the cash flow after interest expense is what we can use to repay debt."

"However, this lower income now needs to support 87% (1) less of net debt & pension liabilities with net debt decreasing by 96% (1)"

"NMC unjustifiably in our view understated its FY 2018 debt by at least approximately $320 million, and likely continues to do so."

"We find that recent changes in balance sheet debt are deviating materially from changes in debt through the cash flow statement."

"The spread on PSH USD-denominated debt has declined from 337bps at its inaugural issuance to 175bps at its most recent issuance"

"Spruce Point observes that REZI's leverage has materially increased while cash flow available for debt reduction has decreased."

"we find that AFAM’s “true” bad debt expense was at least 4.5% of net service revenue – nearly 2.5x the figure reported by AFAM."

"If Valeant has additional debt capacity (up to 4x) after acquisitions, cash is used to buy back stock at 18x trailing earnings"

"This effectively indentures agents to WFG as they are unable to register with another insurance firm with an outstanding debt."

"Vitek secretly controlled MGI and CPI Hotels, which he apparently used to rack up debt to CPI PG of approximately €60 million."

"We assume that Macy’s pays down enough debt to achieve 3.5x Adjusted Debt / EBITDAR and maintains a $1 billion cash balance."

"CoreWeave isn’t pioneering the future of AI – it’s a debt fueled GPU rental business with no moat, dressed up as innovation."

"Like Bon-Ton, many feared Claire’s would seek bankruptcy protection. Year-to-date, its debt has traded up more than 4 times"

"Publishing's initial leverage at 4.0x total debt/OIBDA would be greater than the leverage levels of most of the peer group."

"Olam's net debt to LTM adjusted EBITDA is now 8.4x, compared to 7.8x at the end of Q1. These numbers are dangerously high."

"Proceeds from the IPO and the sale of the remaining interest in the credit card receivables can be used to pay down debt"

"Steady-state free cash flow concept, which debt investors have become comfortable with, is essentially the same as AFFO"

"In Greenlight's opinion, when an equity sponsor has to guarantee the bank debt the investment is a troubled situation."

"The following analysis illustrates the cash flow forecasts of TWC assuming initial leverage of 4.75x total debt/OIBDA."

"Pay down ~$9bn of Target debt using all of the credit card proceeds, a portion of the IPO proceeds, and free cash flow"

"Certain peers of TWX, including lower rated credits, easily accessed the public debt markets during the fall of 2002."

"While we suggested a maturity extension of GGP’s unsecured debt, the vast majority of it will be repaid at emergence"

"Shady Accounting And Financial Management Includes Misstatements To The SEC, Inflated Margins And Understated Debts"

"It seems that ~70% - 75% of the U.S. loan book is unable to service its debt absent rate swaps, based on the CLOs."

"Where negative working capital becomes a killer is if the businesses don't have enough cash and can't borrow debt."

"We estimate GFL's debt is C$460m more than reported and financial data providers fail to capture the adjustments."

"Spruce Point believes that WTRG’s growing dependence on short-term debt is a sign of its rising financial stress."

"About 30% is GOs or General Obligation bonds. These are generally believed to be the best positioned of the debt."

"This repurchase would result in pro forma TWX total debt rising to $43.6 billion or 3.8x total debt/2005PF OIBDA."

"Having To Borrow Commercial Paper To Pay Down Long-Term Debt Is Worrisome. Why Couldn't Amcor Issue More LT Debt?"

"What Is Even Worse Is That The Large Pay Day To Insiders Was Financed By Debt Taken On By PLTK Shortly Before IPO"

"PSH's ability to access low-cost, investment-grade, long-term debt is an important competitive advantage for PSH"

"PSH's ability to access low-cost, investment grade, long-term debt is an important competitive advantage for PSH"

"The fact that it is taking longer to collect receivables does not reconcile with a lower reserve for bad debts."

"Our ability to access low-cost, investment grade, long-term debt is an important competitive advantage for PSH"

"Our ability to access low-cost, investment grade, long-term debt is an important competitive advantage for PSH"

"Our ability to access low-cost, investment grade, long-term debt is an important competitive advantage for PSH"

"If the bad debt allowance is being manipulated, it stands to reason that revenues may also be manipulated too."

"The main problem is that GTT does not generate organic growth or enough free cash flow to service its debt."

"We argue that Fairfax has used equity transactions with OMERS and CPPIB to obtain off-balance sheet debt."

"Stryker's bad debt allowance has been steadily rising and now exceeds peers such as Zimmer and Medtronic."

"AVY wants investors to see improved ROTC, but ignores pension, operating leases and other forms of debt."

"On average, tenants have improved their net debt positions more than 30% since the same period last year"

"On average, tenants have improved their net debt positions more than 30% since the same period last year"