Last year Rennie Industries had sales of $395,000, assets of $175,000 (which equals total invested capital), a profit margin of 5.3%, and an equity multiplier of 1.2. The CFO believes that the company could reduce its assets by $51,000 without affecting either sales or costs. The firm finances using only debt and common equity.
Had it reduced its assets by this amount, and had the debt/total invested capital ratio, sales, and costs remained constant, how much would the ROE have changed? Do not round your intermediate calculations.