Debt capital is the capital that a business raises by taking out a loan. It is a loan made to a company that is normally repaid at some future date. Debt capital differs from equity or share capital because subscribers to debt capital do not become part owners of the business, but are merely creditors, and the suppliers of debt capital usually receive a contractually fixed annual percentage return on their loan, and this is known as the coupon rate.
Debt capital ranks higher than equity capital for the repayment of annual returns. This means that legally, the interest on debt capital must be repaid in full before any dividends are paid to any suppliers of equity.
A company that is highly geared has a high debt-to-equity capital ratio.
Famous quotes containing the words debt and/or capital:
“It is a well-settled principle of the international code that where one nation owes another a liquidated debt which it refuses or neglects to pay the aggrieved party may seize on the property belonging to the other, its citizens or subjects, sufficient to pay the debt without giving just cause of war.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)
“We saw the machinery where murderers are now executed. Seven have been executed. The plan is better than the old one. It is quietly done. Only a few, at the most about thirty or forty, can witness [an execution]. It excites nobody outside of the list permitted to attend. I think the time for capital punishment has passed. I would abolish it. But while it lasts this is the best mode.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)