The Analyst's Path

Glossarytaught in M3.07

Reinvestment rate

Also called reinvestment ratio, plough-back rate.

The share of after-tax operating profit that goes back into the business as capital spending above depreciation, plus the increase in working capital.

Take a company with ₹720 crore of net operating profit after tax. It spends ₹460 crore on plant against ₹380 crore of depreciation and adds ₹210 crore of working capital, so it reinvests ₹290 crore, or 40.3%.

This number matters because growth isn't free. Every rupee of additional revenue needs assets behind it, and the reinvestment rate measures how many rupees of profit that consumes.

Multiply it by the return on invested capital and you get the growth rate the business can sustain from its own resources.

Every long-horizon model runs on that identity.

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