5. The relationship between a firm's capital structure and other company attributes Corporations allowed to deduct interest payments as an expense. Corporations allowed to deduct dividend payments to in their stockholders as an expense. The differential tax treatment of interest payments and dividend payments encourages firms to use capital structure. Debt financing is expensive than common or preferred stock financing. Blue Ram Brewing Company currently has no debt in its capital structure, but it is considering using some debt and reducing its outstanding equity. The firm's unlevered beta is 1.05, and its cost of equity is 12.43%. Because the firm has no debt in its capital structure, its weighted average cost of capital (WACC) also equals 12.43%. The risk-free rate of interest (TRF) is 3.5%, and the market risk premium (RPM) is 8.5%. Blue Ram's marginal tax rate is 25%. Blue Ram is examining how different levels of debt will affect its costs of debt and equity, as well as its WACC. The firm has collected the financial information that follows to analyze its weighted average cost of capital (WACC). Complete the following table. D/Cap Ratio E/Cap Ratio Bond Rating Before-Tax Cost of Debt (ra) Levered Beta (b) Cost of Equity Ts) D/E Ratio WACC 0.0 1.0 0.00 1.05 12.43% 12.43% 0.2 0.8 0.25 A 7.2% 14.100% 12.360% 0.4 0.6 0.67 BBB 7.7% 1.575 16.888% 0.6 0.4 1.50 BB 8.9% 2.231 12.991% 0.8 0.2 11.9% 4.200 39.200%