Cardinal Company is considering a five-year project that would require a $2,850,000 investment in equipment with a useful life of five years and no salvage value. The companys discount rate is 18%. The project would provide net operating income in each of five years as follows:

Sales			$	2,857,000
Variable expenses				1,011,000
Contribution margin				1,846,000
Fixed expenses:
Advertising, salaries, and other fixed out-of-pocket costs	$	799,000
Depreciation		570,000
Total fixed expenses				1,369,000
Net operating income			$	477,000
15. Assume a postaudit showed that all estimates (including total sales) were exactly correct except for the variable expense ratio, which actually turned out to be 45%. What was the projects actual simple rate of return? (Round your answer to 2 decimal places.)