S&P downgrades Eskom to BB-

S&P said it lowered its long-term corporate credit rating on Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. to BB- from BB.

The outlook is negative.

At the same time, the agency downgraded its long- and short-term South Africa national scale ratings on Eskom to zaBB+/ZaB from zaBBB/zaA-2.

The downgrade follows the Dec. 2 downgrade of South Africa. S&P said it believes that the downgrade of the sovereign signals a weakening of the government's ability to provide support to Eskom if needed.

Eskom’s ratings continue to reflect S&P’s assessment of an extremely high likelihood of government support, but also factor in the continuing very substantial gap between Eskom’s stand-alone credit profile of ccc+ and its global scale rating, the agency explained.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.