Two months into the new financial year, Eskom says it has successfully raised more than R13bn, narrowing its funding gap to R58bn for the year ending March 2019. This was 10% ahead of the electricity producer’s target as lenders opened their wallets since the start of 2018, newly appointed CEO Phakamani Hadebe said this week. It is a big turnaround for the utility, after it ran out of cash in late 2017, with major lenders declining to lend it money amid rampant corruption. In February, Eskom relied on an emergency 30-day loan from the Public Investment Corporation to pay salaries and meet its running costs. Hadebe said the utility had managed to raise the R13.16bn from local institutions. Eskom’s funding requirement for the 2019 financial year is R72bn, meaning it needs to find another R58bn. About R8bn of this would be raised through domestic bond markets, an official from Eskom’s treasury department said. The power utility had outstanding debt of R367bn in the six months to end-Se...
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