what figures r we looking for, page-26

nvestopedia Says:
The higher a company's degree of leverage, the more the company is considered risky. As for most ratios, an acceptable level is determined by its comparison to ratios of companies in the same industry. The best known examples of gearing ratios include the debt-to-equity ratio (total debt / total equity), times interest earned (EBIT / total interest), equity ratio (equity / assets), and debt ratio (total debt / total assets).\\\

the above from GOOGLE

All known definitions use shareholders funds or equity as the denominator the numerator varies but interest bearing debt is popular as is long term debt or total debt however every business school every text book and every financial dictionary uses equity as the denominator it certainly did when I was at Columbia in my financial statements analysis course