Eskom considers selling assets as it faces battle to shed unsustainable debt
Hard calls and tough decisions lie ahead for the new Eskom board's members, who have to find a solution to the crippling debt that is threatening the sustainability of the state-owned power utility. Jabu Mabuza, the newly elected Eskom board chairman, said on Thursday it was still too early to say which assets the group would sell and to whom because there were still a number of options Eskom was looking at to help it get rid of its unsustainable debt burden. "It would be wrong for me to say, yes, we will sell this asset [there] or bring in somebody here. We need to say, are there funders who are prepared to come into projects, which is what is currently happening," Mabuza said. At its 2017 interim result presentation on Tuesday Eskom announced that the business had reached a debt of R367-billion and that in order to reduce it, it was looking at the option of converting debt to equity for its lenders.However, economist at Pan-African Investments Iraj Abedian said although converting...
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