Lister Inc. is a small, publicly traded data processing company that has $200 million in debt outstanding, in both book value and market value terms. The book value of equity in the company is $400 million and there are 40 million shares outstanding, trading at $20/share. The current levered beta for the company is 1.15 and the companys pre-tax cost of borrowing is 5%. The current risk-free rate in US $ is 3%, the equity risk premium is 5% and the marginal tax rate is 40%.

1. Estimate the current cost of capital for the company.

2. Now assume that the company plans to triple its debt to capital ratio (through a recapitalization), which will raise the pre-tax cost of debt to 8%. If the expected pre-tax operating income of the firm is $36 million, estimate the new cost of capital.