[thackney]

What's interesting about this company is that it chose to borrow more money instead of issuing stock, despite its massive debt load relative to stockholder equity even before the new debt issue.

I would expect few wanted to buy more stock in a company so loaded up with debt. Some of these firms have more liabilities than assets at the current oil price.

[Zhang Fei]

I would expect few wanted to buy more stock in a company so loaded up with debt. Some of these firms have more liabilities than assets at the current oil price.

If you can borrow money, you can issue stock. Debt investors are risk averse, and new debt issues increase risk. Whereas stock investors are, by definition, not averse to risk if the returns are commensurate, and new equity issues decrease risk.