In: Finance
8. One of your new employees notes that your debt has a lower
cost of capital (4%) than your equity (13%). So, he suggests that
the firm swap its capital structure from 31% debt and 69% equity
to 69% debt and 31% equity instead. He estimates that after the
swap, your cost of equity would be 18%.
a. What would be your new cost of debt? Make your calculations
based on your firm's pre-tax WACC.
b. Have you lowered your overall cost of capital?
a) Cost of new debt = cost of debt * weight
= 4% * 0.69
= 2.76% Answer
b) Cost of capital new = Weighted average of cost
= 4% * 0.69 + 18% * 0.31
= 4% + 5.58%
= 8.34% Answer
Cost of capital old = Weighted average of cost
= 4% * 0.31 + 13% * 0.69
= 1.24% + 8.97%
= 10.21%
Thus wacc is lowered in new structure.