S&P downgrades Eskom to junk, get the report here
JOHANNESBURG, March 19 (Reuters) – Standard & Poor's (S&P) on Thursday cut its credit ratings for South Africa's Eskom to junk, which will almost certainly raise borrowing costs for the cash-strapped firm that generates most of the power in Africa's most advanced economy.
The ratings agency, which also kept its negative outlook for Eskom, said in a statement that last week's shock suspension of the utility's CEO and three other senior executives "has led us to have less confidence in the company's corporate governance arrangements as well as in its stand-alone credit profile."
S&P said the negative outlook reflected "our opinion that material execution risk remains associated with the government's support plan."
S&P said it considered an "upgrade unlikely in the foreseeable future."
($1 = 12.3145 rand)
(Reporting by Ed Stoddard and Tiisetso Motsoeneng; Editing by James Macharia and Mark Potter)