The Sprouts$-$N$-$Steel Company has two divisions: health foods and specialty metals. Eacin division employs debt equal to $30$ percent and preferred stock equal to $10$ percent of its total requirements, with equity capital used for the remainder. The current borrowing rate is $15$ percent, and the company's tax rate is $40$ percent. At present, preferred stock can be sold yielding $13$ percent.

Sprouts$-$N$-$Steel wishes to establish a minimum return standard for each division based on the risk of that division. This standard then would serve as the transfer price of capital to the division. The company has thought about using the capital$-$asset pricing model in this regard. It has identified two samples of companies, with modal value betas of $0\mathrm{.}90$ for health foods and $1\mathrm{.}30$ for specialty metals. $($Assume that the sample companies had similar capital

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al$,$ Capital Structure, and Dividend Policy

structures to that of Sprouts$-$N$-$Steel.$)$ The risk$-$free rate is currently $12$ percent and the expected return on the market portfolio $17$ percent. Using the CAPM approach, what weighted average required returns on investment would you recommend for these two divisions?

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