HR Consulting is a management consultant. Its reported net income in the most recent year was 23 million and it had a return on equity of 20%. An analyst decides to treat Training and Recruitment expenditure as capital expenditure and estimates the value of the human capital asset to be 45 million. The training and recruitment expenditure was 15 million and the amortisation of the human capital asset is 10 million. There is no tax.

a. Re-estimate the return on equity of HR Consulting. (3 marks)

b. Do you agree with the analysts decision to treat recruitment and training expenses as capex? Give reasons for your answer. (2 marks)