negatively impact our credit ratings, our cost of borrowing, our ability to access capital on favorable terms and our overall liquidity and capital structure could be adversely impacted.
To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic continues to adversely affect the business and financial results of us and our franchisees, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section and in our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, such as those relating to our high level of indebtedness, cybersecurity and our increasing dependence on digital commerce, supply chain interruptions and changes in labor and other operating costs.
Risks Related to the Notes
The Notes will be structurally subordinated to all existing and future indebtedness and other liabilities of our subsidiaries.
The Notes are exclusively the obligations of the Company and are not guaranteed by any of our subsidiaries. Our operations are conducted almost exclusively through our subsidiaries. Generally, claims of creditors of a subsidiary, including trade creditors and claims of preference shareholders (if any) of the subsidiary, will have priority with respect to the assets and earnings of the subsidiary over the claims of creditors of its parent entity, including claims by holders of the Notes. In the event of any foreclosure, dissolution, winding-up, liquidation, administration, reorganization or other insolvency or bankruptcy proceeding of any of our subsidiaries, holders of their indebtedness and their trade creditors will generally be entitled to payment of their claims from the assets of those subsidiaries before any assets are made available for distribution to us as a shareholder. As such, the Notes will be structurally subordinated to the creditors (including trade creditors) and preference shareholders (if any) of our subsidiaries. At December 31, 2021, our subsidiaries had approximately $9,900 million of liabilities outstanding, including $ 6,864 million principal amount of indebtedness. The Indenture does not limit our or our subsidiaries’ ability to incur additional indebtedness.
We may not be able to generate sufficient cash to service all of our indebtedness, including the Notes, and we may be forced to take other actions to satisfy our obligations under our indebtedness, which may not be successful.
Our ability to make scheduled payments on or to refinance our debt obligations and to fund planned capital expenditures depends on our future performance and our ability to generate cash from our operations, which is subject, among other things, to the success of our business strategy, customer demand, increased competition, prevailing economic conditions and financial, competitive, legislative, legal, regulatory and other factors, including those other factors discussed in these “Risk Factors”, many of which are beyond our control. At December 31, 2021, we had $14,339 million of liabilities outstanding, including $11,339 million principal amount of indebtedness.
We cannot assure you that we will be able to generate a level of cash flow from our operations sufficient to permit us to pay the principal, premium, if any, and interest on our indebtedness, including the Notes, or that future borrowings will be available to us in an amount sufficient to enable us to service and repay the Notes and our other indebtedness or to fund our other liquidity needs. If our cash flows and capital resources are insufficient to fund our debt service obligations, we may be forced to reduce or delay investments and capital expenditures or to sell assets, seek additional capital or restructure or refinance our indebtedness, including the Notes, any of which will depend on our cash needs, our financial condition at such time, the
then-prevailing market conditions and the terms of our then-existing debt instruments, including the indentures governing the Subsidiary Senior Notes and our Senior Secured Credit Facilities, which may restrict us from adopting some of these alternatives. Any failure to make payments of interest and principal on our outstanding indebtedness on a timely basis would likely result in a reduction of our credit ratings, which could also harm our ability to incur additional indebtedness. In addition, any refinancing of our debt could be at higher interest rates and may require us to comply with more onerous covenants, which could further restrict our business operations. Furthermore, if we are required to sell assets, there can be no assurances that any assets which we could be required to dispose of could be sold or that, if sold, the timing of the sales and the amount of proceeds realized from those sales would be on acceptable terms.
We will need to rely upon cash distributions from our subsidiaries to service the Notes and the Parent Outstanding Notes, including for the payment of interest. The ability of our subsidiaries to generate sufficient