Final answer:
The External Financing Needed (EFN) would likely be lower since the firm was operating at 80 percent capacity, indicating it has extra capacity to support some growth without the need for external funds.
Step-by-step explanation:
To determine the External Financing Needed (EFN) when the firm was operating at only 80 percent capacity in 2011, we need to consider how this impacts the firm's ability to support growth without additional financing. Since the firm is not operating at full capacity, it can likely support additional growth by utilizing its unused capacity. In other words, the firm can increase output up to the point where it reaches 100 percent capacity without the need for external funds.
Using the capacity factor, which is the ratio of actual output to maximum possible output, if the firm was operating at 80 percent capacity, it has room to grow by 20 percent (100% - 80%) without additional investment in new capacity. Thus, provided the growth rate does not exceed this unused capacity, the EFN would be lower than if the firm was already at full capacity. The actual calculations would require more specific financial data from the previous problem, like projected sales growth, profit margins, and capital intensity, to adjust the EFN accordingly.