Venue: CCRED, 2nd Floor, 5 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg

The Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED) at the University of Johannesburg is honoured to host a Short Learning Programme (SLP) in Financial Analysis for Economic Regulation and Competition.

Accounting and finance are key areas of work at economic regulators and play a critical role in the determination of tariffs and the assessment of firm conduct. Different costing methodologies can result in very different tariffs for regulated entities or different evaluations of a firm’s conduct. In capital intensive industries, capital investments can account for the bulk of a regulated entity’s costs, and therefore the costs of capital need to be carefully weighed when arriving at a final tariff or evaluating a firm’s conduct.

Providing a strong theoretical and practical foundation for these key issues, this SLP is targeted at staff employed at competition authorities, economic regulators, departments within government and regulated enterprises, private practitioners and students.

The SLP will be led by Thabiso Madiba, an accounting professional and academic at the University of Johannesburg. Dr Stephen Labson, an international expert on regulation and finance and a Senior Research Fellow at CCRED, will provide specialist training on cost of capital; and Professor Simon Roberts, a competition economics expert and the director of CCRED will assist in the facilitation of in-depth case studies.

Approach

The course will be taught by means of lectures on theory and practical case studies on actual regulator decisions (internationally and from South Africa), where possible, in order for course participants to develop a working knowledge of regulatory costing and finance principles. The lectures will be complemented by in-depth case exercises involving analysis of data and fact patterns by different groups who will present findings in feedback sessions.

Key principles and tests taught during the lectures will be reinforced through the case exercises. The following topics and themes will be covered in the programme:

  • Cost of capital (including case studies drawing from international experience);
  • Measures of costs (including long run average incremental cost (and relevant mark-up methodologies), fully allocated cost, stand-alone cost, and variable/marginal cost) appropriate to the regulated entity and policy framework;
  • Costing principles, including historical cost accounting, current cost accounting (including operating capital maintenance and financial capital maintenance) and long run incremental cost; and
  • Financial analysis of regulated entities.

Cost

The course cost is R 11350 per person. This rate includes all the course material, lunch and refreshments.

Contact details

For booking forms and information on the course, please contact Nicholas Nhundu; Tel: +27 11 559 7523 or +27 78 183 3756; E-mail: nicholasn@uj.ac.za or Anthea Paelo; Tel: +27 11 559 7514; E-mail: antheap@uj.ac.za