Some have called their style "the new American garden," though it owes a hefty debt to the German plantsman Karl Foerster, who worked much earlier in the century.

The object of a leveraged buyout in 1992, the company has lost money for the last three years, largely because of interest payments on the hefty debt.

They'd built themselves up a hefty debt over the generations.

Broadcasting chains spend huge sums to buy new stations, incurring hefty debts, then press program directors to deliver ratings and advertising dollars immediately, before the next quarterly reckoning.

But it's got hefty debts - $41bn of them, against assets of $107bn, according to the Chapter 11 filing.

Lyondell Chemical, based in Houston, agreed last week to acquire Millennium, and its hefty debt, in a $2.3 billion deal.

Jones will also assume Nine West's hefty debt, making the total value of the deal about $1.4 billion.

Argentina faces a different problem: investors there are worried that its slow-growing economy may not have the wherewithal to repay its hefty foreign debt.

It will use the almost $300 million it raises to pay down some of its hefty debt, though it will have to continue to borrow to expand.

(Peirce had owed a hefty financial debt to Mr. Barbour.)