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Gearing

The most common use of the term 'gearing' is to describe the level of a company's debt compared with its equity capital, and usually it is expressed as a percentage. So a company with gearing of 60 per cent has levels of debt which are 60 per cent of its equity capital.

The significance of the gearing ratio is that it shows at a glance how encumbered a company is with debt. Depending on the industry, a gearing ratio of 15% would be considered prudent whilst anything over 100% would be considered risky or 'highly geared'.

'Gearing' is also used in a related sense to refer to borrowings by an investment trust which boosts the return on capital and income via additional investment. When the trust is performing well shareholders enjoy an enhanced or 'geared profit'. However if the trust performs poorly then the loss is similarly exaggerated.

Finally, 'gearing' is also used to refer to the ratio between a company's share price and its warrant price.

Submitted by: admin
Added: Fri May 19 2006

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