South Africa

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.

South African Airways will meet a group of domestic lenders on Tuesday to negotiate the refinancing of about 6 billion rand ($423 million) in outstanding loans, according to its new chief executive officer, Bloomberg News reported. The banks have in principle agreed to extend the loan terms, Vuyani Jarana, who took the helm at the loss-making airline on Nov. 1, said during an interview at Bloomberg’s Johannesburg office on Monday. The group is led by Nedbank Group Ltd. and includes FirstRand Ltd., Standard Bank Group Ltd., Barclays Africa Group Ltd. and Investec Plc.

The rand and South African bonds extended declines as foreign investors dumped the country’s notes in the wake of government forecasts for higher public debt and wider budget deficits in the next three years, Bloomberg News reported. Stocks rose to a record as gains for rand hedges offset drops for banks and retailers. The nation’s currency extended its longest losing streak in a month, while the yield on benchmark 10-year notes rose to the highest in 16 months.

A Bloomberg News report that South Africa’s National Treasury is seeking as much as 100 billion rand ($7.5 billion) from the government workers’ pension fund to finance struggling state companies is untrue, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said. The Public Investment Corp., which manages the fund and has about 1.86 trillion rand in assets, has been asked by the Treasury to buy its entire 12 billion-rand stake in Telkom SA SOC Ltd. to pay for a bailout of South African Airways, two people with direct knowledge of the situation told Bloomberg News last week.