The disagreeable reality is that companies have been working the system to lower the amount of debt they show investors, even though lease debt is just as real as any bank loan.
The PG&E Corporation, whose California utility filed for bankruptcy protection last year, delayed reporting fourth-quarter earnings yesterday as it reviewed whether to reclassify power plant leases as debt on financial statements dating back to 1999.
Monsignor Murnion said the Brooklyn Diocese has a reputation for being very attentive to the financial needs of its parishes, and helping the parishes to devise ways to avoid sliding deeper into debt, like leasing little-used church property.
Mick Jagger is an actual rich person, who doesn't need to prove it by constantly playing charity golf with assholes who leased each other debt in the 80s.
In a synthetic lease, a third party controls the property, while the tenant can finance lease payments through debt.
Without the lease and debt changes, ATA might have been forced to restructure its debts in bankruptcy, the company said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
It could use so-called lease appropriation debt, most likely relying on a quasi-government entity like the Industrial Development Agency to pay for the construction and then use tax revenues generated by the stadium and nearby properties to help repay the debt.
(For more information on how Krispy Kreme tried to use synthetic leases, see: "Debt? Who, Me?").
The CIT Group, which finances purchases of items like aircraft and trains, agreed to buy the GATX Corporation's technology-leasing unit for about $200 million in cash and undisclosed debt to lease more computer equipment.
Because airlines are top heavy in debt and leased aircraft, the appropriate metric is a multiple not of cash flow but enterprise value which includes the debt in the numerator, net of cash.
