Industrial companies, with a large equity base and a steady stream of earnings, are the ones with the money.

The advantage of leverage is that if the business does only a little better than hoped, profits on the small equity base can be enormous.

Shareholders love them, because they mean that future dividends and profits will be spread over a shrinking equity base.

While pursuing these development projects, Zion continued to build an equity base through the 10-36 Plan.

His partnership strengthened the Balbirnie team in shareholding terms, broadening its equity base.

As a public company, its equity base, the financial bedrock on which companies are built, had amounted to $1.5 billion.

"Moreover, we will have a substantially broader equity base, dramatically improved cash flow and a streamlined organization."

The offering, set to close this week, is designed to fortify G.M.'s diminished equity base.

The Bank of America has a similarly thin common equity base.

Buybacks typically raise a company's debt level by shrinking its equity base when it retires the shares.