Not inherently — it can boost returns. But it raises risk if income falls, and lenders watch it closely.

No — it's a free illustration. Your actual Creditcorp offer depends on an assessment of your company.

Gearing (debt-to-equity) calculator

How to use it

Enter your figures above — the result updates instantly and nothing leaves your browser. Results are illustrative, not a quote or credit decision.

How to interpret the result

A gearing figure only means something in context. A business with steady, predictable income can usually carry a higher level of debt relative to equity than one whose revenue swings from month to month, because the buffer against a bad patch is thinner in the latter case. Rather than reading the result in isolation, weigh it against how stable your cash flow is, how much of the debt is secured against specific assets, and how quickly equity has been built up versus borrowed in.

Trend matters more than a single snapshot. A gearing level that has been climbing steadily as a company reinvests borrowed funds into growth tells a different story from the same level reached after a run of losses eroded shareholders' equity. Reviewing the figure alongside a few years of accounts, rather than on its own, gives a fuller picture of whether the trajectory is deliberate and controlled or a symptom of underlying pressure.

Limitations and good practice

This calculator gives an illustrative snapshot based on the two figures entered — it does not account for the quality or maturity profile of the debt, for un-drawn facilities that could still be called on, or for how liquid the underlying assets actually are. Two companies with an identical result can carry very different risk, depending on those details, so treat the output as a starting point for a conversation rather than a verdict.

Good practice is to revisit the calculation regularly, particularly around year-end accounts or before approaching a lender, and to keep the inputs consistent each time so the trend is genuinely comparable. It is also worth pairing this measure with a coverage-based view, such as the Debt service coverage ratio (DSCR) calculator or the Equity multiplier (leverage) calculator, since gearing on its own says nothing about whether income comfortably services the debt it describes.