Interest Rate

1. Hartford Mining has 90 million shares that are currently trading for $2 per share and $160 million worth of debt. The debt is risk free and has an interest rate of 4%, and the expected return of Hartford stock is 11%. Suppose a mining strike causes the price of Hartford stock to fall 25% to $1.50 per share. The value of the risk-free debt is unchanged. Assuming there are no taxes and the risk (unlevered beta) of Hartford’s assets is unchanged, what happens to Hartford’s equity cost of capital?

 

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2. Hubbard Industries is an all-equity firm whose shares have an expected return of 10.9%. Hubbard does a leveraged recapitalization by issuing debt and repurchasing stock until its debt-equity ratio is 0.66. Due to the increased risk, shareholders now expect a return of 17.1%. Assuming there are no taxes and Hubbard’s debt is risk-free, what is the interest rate on the debt?