A company's return on equity increases at an optimum level of financial leverage because the use of leverage increases the stock volatility, increasing the level of risk which then increases the returns.
Financially over-leveraged companies may face a decrease in return on equity.
With positive bankruptcy costs, an increase in business risk decreases the proportion of debt in the capital structure.
With higher business risk, stand-alone firms will prefer less debt as they are more likely to face financial distress.
An investor who has enough cash to acquire an asset but chooses to use a mixture of debt and cash will have remaining cash left over.
Learn more about leverages here:
