Debt can look manageable for a long time, especially when interest costs are stable and maturities are still some distance away.
What I usually check first is the maturity schedule. I want to know how much debt comes due, how concentrated those repayments are, and whether the business is generating enough cash to deal with them.
Refinancing cost matters too. Old debt may have been arranged under much easier conditions, so the next round of financing can change the picture even if the business itself has not changed much.
For me, reliable analysis comes from making those assumptions easy to check. I prefer to look at debt maturity, operating cash flow, interest costs and available liquidity together rather than rely on one leverage ratio.
The question is not simply how much a company owes. It is whether the financing structure still works when conditions change.
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