Credit insurers have decided to withdraw insurance cover for South African retailer Steinhoff International's loans, Steinhoff's Austrian subsidiary Kika/Leiner said on Monday. "The loss of the credit insurance is a result of the Steinhoff crisis," Kika/Leiner said in a statement. Steinhoff, whose retail chains include Britain's Poundland, Mattress Firm in the U.S. and Conforama in France, has been fighting to recover from the fallout from accounting irregularities discovered in December, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story.

Employees at South African audit firm Nkonki Inc. applied to a Pretoria court to block the company’s liquidation and have it put into administration instead so there’s a chance the business can be rescued, according to a court filing. The auditing profession is under pressure in South Africa with Nkonki and the local unit of KPMG LLP losing clients after being linked to the politically connected Gupta family, Bloomberg News reported. Deloitte & Touche LLP is also under scrutiny for having audited scandal-ridden South African retailer Steinhoff International Holdings NV.

South Africa's new president Cyril Ramaphosa will need to call on all his dealmaking skills to overhaul ailing state-owned firms and tackle land reform if he wants to capitalize on Moody's decision not to downgrade the country's debt to junk, the International New York Times reported on a Reuters story. Moody's said its decision to keep South Africa's rating at investment grade reflected its view the country's institutions would regain strength under more transparent and predictable policies - though the new government had to stay on track.

Extensive changes are in the offing at South Africa’s troubled state-owned companies as new Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan moves to tackle their many management and financial failings, Bloomberg News reported. Power utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. and several other state entities have been caught up in graft and management scandals over recent years and repeatedly called on the state to bail them out as their debt ballooned to unsustainable levels.

At least eight companies owned by the wealthy Gupta family accused of corrupt ties to former president Jacob Zuma, have filed for protection from creditors, documents showed on Friday, Reuters reported. The Indian-born billionaire business associates of Zuma, were accused of using their political connections to win state contracts and influence cabinet appointments, in a report by an anti-graft watchdog in 2016. Zuma and the Gupta brothers deny any wrongdoing.

Steinhoff has appointed a former KPMG partner to head restructuring efforts as it tries to rebuild its balance sheet in the wake of an accounting scandal, the Financial Times reported. The South Africa-based retail conglomerate said in January it was looking to appoint an “independent debt restructuring expert” as chief restructuring officer as part of a board overhaul following the departure of its most senior managers.

Steinhoff International Holdings NV said it has secured enough money to keep its businesses running in the immediate term and can now start talks with a broader group of creditors, Bloomberg News reported. The troubled South African retail group has arranged new credit lines for units in the U.K., U.S. and France as well as agreeing a restructuring of its Austrian division, it said in a presentation published on its website. The announcement came after a meeting with creditors in London on Friday to discuss progress stabilizing the business since it uncovered accounting irregularities on Dec.

South Africa appointed a new board at struggling utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., with Jabu Mabuza becoming chairman, and ordered a new permanent chief executive officer to be named within three months. As well as the appointment of Telkom SA SOC Ltd. Chairman Mabuza, the government recommended former Land Bank chief Phakamani Hadebe as the acting CEO, it said in a statement. The move, designed to strengthen governance and management, follows a meeting between President Jacob Zuma and other key ministers on Friday to address urgent challenges at the firm, Bloomberg News reported.

Retailer Steinhoff’s South African lenders have backed a move to prop up its troubled European operations with liquidity from healthier South African subsidiaries as the group scrambles to close a funding gap, Reuters reported. A first instalment of 60 million euros ($73 million) of a total 200 million it is seeking will be received this week, Steinhoff said in a statement on Thursday, adding it was seeking consent for further instalments.

There is a “clear danger” that South Africa’s state-owned power utility, Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., could default on its debt, S&P Global Ratings said. “We are very concerned about liquidity issues,” Konrad Reuss, the managing director of S&P for sub-Saharan Africa, said at an event in Johannesburg Thursday. Eskom is the biggest recipient of state guarantees at a time when domestic power demand is the lowest in more than 10 years and as South Africa’s finances buckle under lower tax revenue and rising debt, Bloomberg News reported.