Red Flag Alert – Too Complicated for Comfort
Red Flag Alert – Too Complicated for Comfort
Some companies are simply too complicated – or as I like to say, too complicated for comfort.
Like GFL Environmental, a rollup of more than 260 companies whose ability to generate cash, pay down debt and continue to roll up even more companies seem to be at risk.
What's more, it keeps tinkering with metrics, adjusting away this and that with what seems to be the express purpose of making itself look better than it really is And these are not just any adjustments. Much of what GFL adjusts involves M&A expenses, which for a rollup – while perfectly legal – is absurd to the point of laughable.
Gyroscopic Complexity
Now GFL appears to be a financial maze with enough gyroscopic complexity that would challenge even the best forensic accountant.
Nothing should be that complicated...
Yet GFL, which hauls garbage and runs landfills, is.
And it’s not just complex. I have a category I like to call, “if you knew nothing else…”
With GFL, if you knew nothing else, one look at t…