As part of its consultation process on Aurizon Network's 2013 DAU, the Queensland Competition Authority (QCA) is planning to hold a workshop on cost of capital on 13 December 2013. This workshop will cover a number of issues that have arisen as part of QCA's cost of capital methodology review as well as a number of specific issues that are relevant to the QCA's consideration of Aurizon Network's 2013 DAU.
On 25 October 2013 the QCA published three methodology papers on: risk-free rate and the market risk premium; cost of debt; and gamma. The QCA invited submissions on these papers by 6 January 2014.
It is anticipated that the QCA will publish a number of additional papers in late November that will deal more specifically with the cost of capital parameters underlying the reference tariff proposals in Aurizon Network's 2013 DAU.
Further details on the workshop will be provided closer to that time.