For years, M&A was the primary growth lever. Buy.Integrate.Scale.Repeat. Cheap capital made it easy. Debt financed ambition.Multiples justified expansion.Liquidity masked fragility. That cycle has shifted. Today, the strongest competitive advantage is not acquisition. It is refinancing discipline. The Power Shift In the current market environment: Companies that refinanced early, strengthened equity and extended maturities now…
EBITDA is the most comfortable number in corporate finance. It looks clean.It looks strong.It looks scalable. It also hides reality. Because EBITDA does not pay interest. Cash does. EBITDA does not repay principal. Cash does. EBITDA does not survive refinancing. Cash does. In volatile markets, EBITDA becomes what it often was all along: A comfort…