A. Declining
A commercial banker would prefer a declining debt-equity ratio over the years as it indicates the financial strength of a unit. A declining debt-equity ratio means that the company is reducing its debt and increasing its equity, which makes it less risky to lend money to. This means that the company has a better ability to generate cash flows to service its debt and has a stronger balance sheet.
A stable debt-equity ratio may suggest that the company is not taking advantage of debt to grow its business and that it's not taking on new debt to expand. While an increasing debt-equity ratio may indicate that the company is taking on more debt than it can handle and might be in financial trouble, and fluctuating ratio might indicate that the company is not able to manage its debt and equity properly.