From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgearinggear‧ing /ˈɡɪərɪŋ $ ˈɡɪr-/ noun [uncountable] technical BBthe relationship between the amount of money that a company is worth and the amount that it owes in debts
Examples from the Corpus
gearing• Mr Record said Britannia had net debts of £40m and gearing of 110 percent.• The rise in companies' income gearing has also stabilised.• A number of factors besides increased gearing may also have contributed to higher corporate default rates.• The shell raising and lowering mechanism was overhauled and a new electric motor fitted with modern gearing and cable adjusting devices.• My problem is one of gearing - basically it is too low in all gears.• The company's gearing is 90 percent.• The group's gearing is about 1,000 p.c.• No credit is given for trusts' abilities to enhance returns through gearing.From Longman Business Dictionarygearinggear‧ing /ˈgɪərɪŋˈgɪr-/ (also capital gearing) noun [uncountable] British EnglishFINANCE the amount of borrowing that a company has in relation to its SHARE CAPITAL. If the company makes more profit by investing this borrowed money in its business activities than it pays to lenders in interest, the company’s shareholders will obtain higher DIVIDENDs (=payments from their shares) than they would without the use of borrowed money. But if the company makes less profit by investing this borrowed money in its business activities than it pays to lenders in interest, dividends will be lower, so high gearing involves a higher degree of riskSYNLEVERAGEThe company has cut gearing to between 40% and 50% from approximately 80% over the past two years.We have a target - to lower our gearing to the 1:1 level.With higher levels of capital gearing, debt service payments stood at record levels. 