The Effect of Leverage on Profitability and Debt Coverage
-For leverage to raise expected ROE, must have ROIC > rd(1 - T).
If rd(1 - T) > ROIC, then after-tax interest expense will be higher than the after-tax operating income produced by debt-financed assets, so leverage will depress income.
-As debt increases, TIE decreases because EBIT is unaffected by debt, but interest expense increases (Int Exp = rdD).