Kraft Heinz: what the cash flow and the balance sheet say

Interactive Brokers returned nothing — this is the EDGAR fallback

reqFundamentalData(reportType='ReportsFinStatements') was called against Stock('KHC','SMART','USD') on IB Gateway at 127.0.0.1:4002, clientId 17. The contract qualified (conId 199169586, NASDAQ). The response was 0 bytes, and IB raised:

Error 10358: Fundamentals data is not allowed.

The same for all five peers. This is not error 430 or 162 — it is the entitlement check: the paper account DUP048301 carries no Refinitiv fundamentals subscription, so there is no XML to save and nothing to parse. No figure below comes from Interactive Brokers.

Everything here is read instead from SEC EDGAR companyfacts — KHC at CIK 0001637459 as proposed, and the peers at their own CIKs. Where a company does not tag a line, the cell is blank; nothing is estimated to fill a gap.

Kraft Heinz — cash flow, five fiscal years

US$ bn	2025-12-27	2024-12-28	2023-12-30	2022-12-31	2021-12-25
Net income	-5.85	2.74	2.85	2.36	1.01
Depreciation & amortisation	0.97	0.95	0.96	0.93	0.91
Goodwill impairment	6.73	1.64	0.51	0.44	0.32
Intangible impairment	2.56	1.90	0.15	0.46	1.31
Δ receivables	0.06	0.14	-0.02	0.23	-0.09
Δ inventory	-0.13	0.01	0.11	1.12	0.14
Δ payables	-0.10	-0.31	-0.29	0.15	0.41
Cash from operations	4.46	4.18	3.98	2.47	5.36
Capital expenditure	0.80	1.02	1.01	0.92	0.91
Cash from investing	-1.83	-1.02	-0.92	-1.09	4.04
Dividends paid	1.90	1.93	1.97	1.96	1.96
Buyback	0.44	0.99	0.46	0.28	0.27
Cash from financing	-1.25	-3.01	-2.68	-3.71	-9.34
Free cash flow (CFO − capex)	3.66	3.16	2.96	1.55	4.46

Kraft Heinz does not tag a single "changes in working capital" line (IncreaseDecreaseInOperatingCapital is absent from its filings), so the three components it does tag are shown instead.

Kraft Heinz — balance sheet, five fiscal years

US$ bn	2025-12-27	2024-12-28	2023-12-30	2022-12-31	2021-12-25
Total assets	81.79	88.29	90.34	90.51	93.39
Cash & equivalents	2.62	1.33	1.40	1.04	3.44
Receivables	2.25	2.15	2.11	2.12	1.96
Inventory	3.17	3.38	3.61	3.65	2.73
Property, plant & equipment, net	7.32	7.15	7.12	6.74	6.81
Goodwill	22.18	28.67	30.46	30.83	31.30
Intangibles, net	37.53	40.10	42.45	42.65	43.54
Total liabilities	40.00	38.96	40.62	41.64	43.94
Total debt	21.22	19.87	20.03	20.06	21.80
Net debt	18.60	18.54	18.63	19.02	18.36
Total equity	41.66	49.19	49.53	48.68	49.30
Tangible book value	-18.04	-19.59	-23.38	-24.80	-25.54

Derived measures

US$ bn	2025-12-27	2024-12-28	2023-12-30	2022-12-31	2021-12-25
EBITDA ex-impairment*	5.59	6.17	6.20	5.47	6.00
FCF conversion, % of EBITDA ex-imp	65.4	51.2	47.8	28.4	74.4
(Goodwill + intangibles) / assets, %	73.0	77.9	80.7	81.2	80.1
Net debt / EBITDA ex-imp	3.33×	3.00×	3.01×	3.48×	3.06×
Net debt / tangible assets, %	84.3	95.0	106.9	111.7	98.9
Capex / D&A, %	82.7	108.0	105.4	98.2	99.5
(Dividend + buyback) / FCF, %	63.8	92.4	81.7	144.2	50.0

\* EBITDA ex-impairment is my computation, not the company's "Adjusted EBITDA". It is operating income plus D&A plus the impairments listed above. Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP figure each company defines for itself and it is not in XBRL, so it cannot be read from the filings. Without adding the impairments back, FY2025 EBITDA is negative and every ratio built on it becomes meaningless.

Every year carries an impairment

Fiscal year ending	Goodwill	Intangibles	Total	Cumulative goodwill impairment	% of revenue
2025-12-27	6.73	2.56	9.29	20.20	37.3
2024-12-28	1.64	1.90	3.54	13.50	13.7
2023-12-30	0.51	0.15	0.66	11.80	2.5
2022-12-31	0.44	0.46	0.91	11.30	3.4
2021-12-25	0.32	1.31	1.62	10.90	6.2

Five consecutive years, $16.03bn in total. The cumulative goodwill impairment line is the company's own running total of goodwill written off since the 2015 merger: $20.2bn.

And it has not stopped. The quarter ending 2026-06-27 — after the fiscal 2025 close — carries a further $7.35bn ($2.44bn goodwill, $4.91bn intangibles), taking goodwill to $19.71bn and total assets to $73.06bn.

Kraft Heinz — last eight quarters

US$ bn	2026-06-27	2026-03-28	2025-12-27	2025-09-27	2025-06-28	2025-03-29	2024-12-28	2024-09-28
Revenue	6.26	6.05	—	6.24	6.35	6.00	—	6.38
Net income	-5.46	0.80	—	0.61	-7.82	0.71	—	-0.29
Goodwill impairment	2.44	—	—	0.04	6.69	—	—	0.71
Intangible impairment	4.91	0.01	—	—	2.57	—	—	0.59
Goodwill	19.71	22.15	22.18	22.17	22.23	28.75	28.67	28.95
Intangibles, net	32.37	37.39	37.53	37.55	37.78	40.15	40.10	41.80
Total assets	73.06	82.05	81.79	81.69	81.58	90.27	88.29	88.57
Total equity	36.01	41.92	41.66	41.45	41.36	49.46	49.19	48.33
Tangible book value	-16.08	-17.62	-18.04	-18.26	-18.65	-19.44	-19.59	-22.42
Total debt	19.00	21.13	21.22	21.19	21.21	21.60	19.87	20.09
Cash	2.42	3.31	2.62	2.11	1.57	2.11	1.33	1.28
(GW + int) / assets, %	71.3	72.6	73.0	73.1	73.6	76.3	77.9	79.9

Revenue and net income are blank at the fiscal year-ends because a fourth quarter is not separately tagged — the annual filing covers it. Quarterly cash flow is reported year-to-date rather than discretely, so only true 90-day periods appear above and the rest are left blank rather than differenced.

Peers, latest fiscal year

	Company	Year end	Revenue	FCF	FCF conv %	GW+int / assets %	Tangible BV	ND / EBITDA	Capex / D&A %	Payout / FCF %	Impairment
KHC	Kraft Heinz Co	2025-12-27	24.9	3.7	65.4	73.0	-18.0	3.33×	82.7	63.8	9.29
GIS	General Mills, Inc.	2026-05-31	18.4	1.6	50.1	69.4	-13.5	4.01×	97.2	111.6	1.80
CAG	CONAGRA BRANDS INC	2026-05-31	11.3	1.0	57.7	57.6	-3.6	4.15×	106.9	70.0	2.93
SJM	The J. M. Smucker Comp	2026-04-30	9.1	1.2	61.5	67.1	-5.3	3.68×	57.0	40.7	0.96
MDLZ	Mondelez International	2025-12-31	38.5	3.2	65.5	61.5	-18.1	3.30×	94.2	150.6	0.03
KO	COCA COLA CO	2025-12-31	47.9	5.3	33.4	14.8	16.7	2.13×	201.1	179.9	1.03

What the numbers imply

The impairments are non-cash, and the cash says so. FY2025 shows a net loss of $5.85bn and free cash flow of +$3.66bn. Cash from operations has been between $2.47bn and $5.36bn across all five years while reported earnings swung from +$1.01bn to −$5.85bn. Whatever the write-downs describe, it is not a business that stopped producing cash.

What they do describe is the price paid for the assets. An impairment is the accounting admission that a carrying value is not recoverable. Goodwill has gone from $31.30bn to $22.18bn and intangibles from $43.54bn to $37.53bn over five years, while revenue went from $26.04bn to $24.94bn. The write-downs track a top line that is shrinking, not a one-off shock.

Tangible book value is negative in every period measured, from −$25.54bn to −$18.04bn. Reported equity of $41.66bn exists only because goodwill and intangibles are carried at $59.71bn — 73.0% of total assets. Net debt of $18.60bn sits against tangible assets of $22.08bn, a ratio of 84.3%.

But negative tangible book is the sector, not the company. Four of the five peers are also negative: MDLZ −$18.1bn, KHC −$18.0bn, GIS −$13.5bn, SJM −$5.3bn, CAG −$3.6bn. Only Coca-Cola is positive, at +$16.7bn, and it is the only one where goodwill and intangibles are a minority of assets (14.8% against 73.0% at KHC). Packaged food is an industry that bought its brands rather than built them.

Leverage is mid-pack, not extreme. Net debt to EBITDA ex-impairment is 3.33× at KHC, against 4.15× at CAG and 4.01× at GIS. Net debt has barely moved in five years: $18.36bn to $18.60bn.

Cash conversion is at the top of the group. 65.4% of EBITDA ex-impairment reaches free cash flow, against 65.5% at MDLZ, 50.1% at GIS and 33.4% at KO.

Capex fell below depreciation in the most recent year. Capex/D&A ran 99.5%, 98.2%, 105.4% and 108.0% before dropping to 82.7% in FY2025. One year below replacement rate is not a trend, but it is the first in the window, and it is the year free cash flow rose. Note the contrast with KO at 201.1%.

Distributions are covered now, and were not always. Dividends plus buybacks took 63.8% of free cash flow in FY2025, against 144.2% in the year to 2022-12-31 when they exceeded it. KHC is the second most conservative of the six on this measure; MDLZ at 150.6% and KO at 179.9% both distributed more than they generated.

Limits of this study

No recommendation is made or implied. These are the filed figures and what they arithmetically mean.
"EBITDA ex-impairment" is mine, defined above. It is not the company's Adjusted EBITDA and the two will not reconcile.
Fiscal years are not aligned. KHC and the two calendar-year peers close in December; GIS and CAG in May, SJM in April. The peer table compares each company's latest filed year, not a common window.
Quarterly cash flow is largely absent by design — US filers report it year-to-date, and differencing it would produce figures no filing contains.
Smucker tags depreciation and amortisation separately and never the combined figure, so its D&A is the sum of the two lines and its EBITDA and Capex/D&A are correspondingly approximate.
Conagra's equity is taken from the tag that includes non-controlling interests, the only one it reports.

Tags used

Cash flow: NetIncomeLoss, DepreciationDepletionAndAmortization, GoodwillImpairmentLoss, ImpairmentOfIntangibleAssetsIndefinitelivedExcludingGoodwill, NetCashProvidedByUsedInOperatingActivities, PaymentsToAcquirePropertyPlantAndEquipment, NetCashProvidedByUsedInInvestingActivities, PaymentsOfDividendsCommonStock, PaymentsForRepurchaseOfCommonStock, NetCashProvidedByUsedInFinancingActivities, OperatingIncomeLoss.

Balance sheet: Assets, CashAndCashEquivalentsAtCarryingValue, AccountsReceivableNetCurrent, InventoryNet, PropertyPlantAndEquipmentNet, Goodwill, IntangibleAssetsNetExcludingGoodwill, Liabilities, LongTermDebtAndCapitalLeaseObligationsIncludingCurrentMaturities, StockholdersEquity, GoodwillImpairedAccumulatedImpairmentLoss.

IntangibleAssetsNetExcludingGoodwill already contains the indefinite-lived brands; adding IndefiniteLivedIntangibleAssetsExcludingGoodwill to it double counts and was the first thing this extraction got wrong, putting goodwill plus intangibles at 115% of total assets.