I would translate the sentence as follows:

However, the company's heavy debt/heavy debt burden is the equivalent of XX% of total assets...

A estrutura de financiamento das empresas brasileiras abertas do ... A análise dos tipos de dívida permitiu, também, identificar diferenças entre o ... em moeda nacional e aplicações financeiras superiores à dívida onerosa; ... On the other hand, a positive relation between net onerous indebtedness and ...
www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/12/12139/tde-01072008-10... -

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 16 mins (2009-05-20 19:49:57 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

TIME FOR TURNER - TIME - [ Traduzir esta página ]Part of that may be due to Turner's advent, but it also reflects Levin's promise that he's ready to purge the company's onerous level of indebtedness. ...
www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985338,00.html

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 17 mins (2009-05-20 19:50:55 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Indebtedness
(n.)
The sum owed; debts, collectively

my suggestion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_capital#Cost_of_debt
OMPANY NEWS; RJR Nabisco Buying Back Costly Debt - The New York Times - [ Traduzir esta página ]Analysts said that the market was especially receptive to RJR Nabisco because it had been so successful in paying down and refinancing its costly debt. ...
www.nytimes.com/1991/05/04/business/company-news-rjr-nabisc... - 42k - Em cache - Páginas semelhantes
Gujarat Pipavav to retire costly debt - [ Traduzir esta página ]7 Apr 2001 ... GUJARAT Pipavav Port Pvt Ltd (GPPL) has undertaken a financial restructuring exercise to retire existing high-cost debt and finance ...
www.hinduonnet.com/businessline/2001/04/07/stories/090759g6... - 8k - Em cache - Páginas semelhantes
The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Business - [ Traduzir esta página ]21 Feb 2001 ... Tata Steel said on Tuesday strong cash flow will allow it to retire high cost debt and look for acquisitions in related industries. ...
www.tribuneindia.com/2001/20010221/biz.htm - 52k - Em cache - Páginas semelhantes
Sovereign debt and loss aversion - [ Traduzir esta página ]Are creditors in sovereign debt markets loss averse? In my first paper, I develop a model of costly debt default, in which the home government maximizes the ...
escholarship.bc.edu/dissertations/AAI3142882/ - 8k - Em cache - Páginas semelhantes
de P Nicoletti - 2004 - Todas as 2 versões

intuition http://ultimosegundo.ig.com.br/mundo_virtual/2008/04/11/tmar...