To avoid investing in a business that's in decline, there's a few financial metrics that can provide early indications of aging. When we see a declining return on capital employed (ROCE) in conjunction with a declining base of capital employed, that's often how a mature business shows signs of aging. Trends like this ultimately mean the business is reducing its investments and also earning less on what it has invested. So after we looked into Duty Free International (SGX:5SO), the trends above didn't look too great.

Return On Capital Employed (ROCE): What Is It?

For those who don't know, ROCE is a measure of a company's yearly pre-tax profit (its return), relative to the capital employed in the business. To calculate this metric for Duty Free International, this is the formula:

Return on Capital Employed = Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT) ÷ (Total Assets - Current Liabilities)

0.028 = RM12m ÷ (RM461m - RM19m) (Based on the trailing twelve months to August 2024).

Therefore, Duty Free International has an ROCE of 2.8%. Ultimately, that's a low return and it under-performs the Specialty Retail industry average of 16%.

Check out our latest analysis for Duty Free International

SGX:5SO Return on Capital Employed January 14th 2025

While the past is not representative of the future, it can be helpful to know how a company has performed historically, which is why we have this chart above. If you'd like to look at how Duty Free International has performed in the past in other metrics, you can view this free graph of Duty Free International's past earnings, revenue and cash flow.

The Trend Of ROCE

We are a bit anxious about the trends of ROCE at Duty Free International. Unfortunately, returns have declined substantially over the last five years to the 2.8% we see today. In addition to that, Duty Free International is now employing 34% less capital than it was five years ago. The combination of lower ROCE and less capital employed can indicate that a business is likely to be facing some competitive headwinds or seeing an erosion to its moat. Typically businesses that exhibit these characteristics aren't the ones that tend to multiply over the long term, because statistically speaking, they've already gone through the growth phase of their life cycle.

Our Take On Duty Free International's ROCE

To see Duty Free International reducing the capital employed in the business in tandem with diminishing returns, is concerning. Long term shareholders who've owned the stock over the last five years have experienced a 36% depreciation in their investment, so it appears the market might not like these trends either. With underlying trends that aren't great in these areas, we'd consider looking elsewhere.

One final note, you should learn about the 4 warning signs we've spotted with Duty Free International (including 1 which is significant) .

While Duty Free International may not currently earn the highest returns, we've compiled a list of companies that currently earn more than 25% return on equity. Check out this free list here.