Eskom Secures $3.4 Billion for Two-Thirds of 2019 Funding

(Bloomberg) -- Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. said it’s secured about 48.8 billion rand ($3.4 billion) of the funding the state-owned South African power utility requires for the financial year ending March 31.

Of the remaining 23.2 billion rand, or 32 percent of the total, 15 billion rand will come from structured products, Eskom said in a statement on Tuesday. A further 4.5 billion rand will come from domestic bonds, including 2.3 billion rand with a duration of less than a year. The balance will come from development finance institutions and export credit agencies, it said.

Eskom didn’t immediately respond to a request for further details of the new funding.

Eskom -- which had amassed 399 billion rand of debt by the end of March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg -- has been flagged by ratings companies as a key risk to South Africa’s economy. The cash-strapped utility sold $1.5 billion of Eurobonds earlier this month, tapping international markets for the first time in more than three years.

The utility last month signed a $2.5 billion loan agreement with China Development Bank to go toward construction of the Kusile power station.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Burkhardt in Johannesburg at pburkhardt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alastair Reed at areed12@bloomberg.net, Dylan Griffiths, Liezel Hill

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