On $26$ June $2017,$ LNK announced that it had entered into a binding agreement to acquire UK$-$based Capita Asset Management $($CAS$)$ for an amount of $$1,493$ million plus $$54$ million in transaction costs. To finance the purchase, LNK used a combination of equity $($$$883$ million$)$ and debt $($$$664$ million$).$ The equity funding was to be raised through a fully underwritten renounceable pro$-$rate entitlement offer $($also known as a rights issue$).$ The rights issue was $4$ for $11$ at an issue price of $$6\mathrm{.}75.$ The offers were made to both institutional and retail investors. Detailed information regarding the equity raising can be found in the this ASX announcement. The debt was to be obtained from existing and new bank facilities.

If LNK obtained the required funding amount as detailed above, calculate LNK$$s net leverage ratio $($Total Debt $$ Cash and Cash Equivalents$)/$Total Equity and Earnings Per Share $($EPS$)$ immediately after the transactions, holding all else constant. Use data from the $2017$ Annual Report as of $30$ June $2017$ as your base case scenario. Compare the new net leverage ratio and EPS to the base$-$case leverage ratio and EPS. $[$Hint: you need to calculate the NLR and EPS for the base case scenario and the new NLR and EPS considering the transactions$].$