The firm has a policy that Brooks has been trying to change, so far unsuccessfully, of not using any debt. Brooks proposes to complete the current analysis utilizing the existing capital structure, but then to lower the cost-of-capital for illustrative purposes by including long-term debt in the capital structure. He hopes to demonstrate to the Jenkins brothers the advantages of debt financing and to show them the effect a change in the capital structure would have on the capital budget. (See table 2).
From discussions with the Jenkins brothers, Brooks concludes that their opportunity cost on outside investments is 26 percent. In other words, funds over and above the $2250000 that will be generated internally are available, but the marginal cost of any additional funds is 26 percent rather than the 20 percent cost of internal funds. The Jenkins brothers have thus far refused to introduce debt into the capital structure, but they have agreed to at least listen to Brooks's thoughts on the subject.
Brooks is also working on a five-year financial plan for the company, developing estimates of capital investment opportunities and financial sources for this period. The plan at present is only in its formative stages, so he cannot formally in corporate it into his capital budgeting recommendations for the present year. However, he is reasonably confident of two things. First, he thinks he will be able to persuade the Jenkins brothers to use debt financing and that this will lower the firm's cost-ot-capital. Second, he feels that a recently initiated employee incentive program designed to generate new investment ideas will bear fruit, with the result that Tarheel Forwarding will be able to invest more money at higher rates of return in the future than it has been able to invest in the past.