There's no doubt that money can be made by owning shares of unprofitable businesses. By way of example, Tuas (ASX:TUA) has seen its share price rise 151% over the last year, delighting many shareholders. But while history lauds those rare successes, those that fail are often forgotten; who remembers Pets.com?

So notwithstanding the buoyant share price, we think it's well worth asking whether Tuas' cash burn is too risky. In this report, we will consider the company's annual negative free cash flow, henceforth referring to it as the 'cash burn'. We'll start by comparing its cash burn with its cash reserves in order to calculate its cash runway.

View our latest analysis for Tuas

When Might Tuas Run Out Of Money?

You can calculate a company's cash runway by dividing the amount of cash it has by the rate at which it is spending that cash. When Tuas last reported its balance sheet in July 2023, it had zero debt and cash worth S$44m. Importantly, its cash burn was S$4.6m over the trailing twelve months. So it had a cash runway of about 9.5 years from July 2023. Even though this is but one measure of the company's cash burn, the thought of such a long cash runway warms our bellies in a comforting way. The image below shows how its cash balance has been changing over the last few years.

How Well Is Tuas Growing?

Tuas managed to reduce its cash burn by 90% over the last twelve months, which is extremely promising, when it comes to considering its need for cash. Pleasingly, this was achieved with the help of a 50% boost to revenue. Considering these factors, we're fairly impressed by its growth trajectory. Clearly, however, the crucial factor is whether the company will grow its business going forward. So you might want to take a peek at how much the company is expected to grow in the next few years.

How Easily Can Tuas Raise Cash?

While Tuas seems to be in a decent position, we reckon it is still worth thinking about how easily it could raise more cash, if that proved desirable. Generally speaking, a listed business can raise new cash through issuing shares or taking on debt. One of the main advantages held by publicly listed companies is that they can sell shares to investors to raise cash and fund growth. By looking at a company's cash burn relative to its market capitalisation, we gain insight on how much shareholders would be diluted if the company needed to raise enough cash to cover another year's cash burn.

Tuas has a market capitalisation of S$1.3b and burnt through S$4.6m last year, which is 0.4% of the company's market value. So it could almost certainly just borrow a little to fund another year's growth, or else easily raise the cash by issuing a few shares.