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Eskom offered $6.5bn in loans
The National Treasury's Lungisa Fuzile told a group of asset managers in Cape Town that Eskom has nailed down a loan of US$500m from the African Development Bank, and he added that the bank has offered another US$1 billion to help pay for the utility's infrastructure build.
In addition, Fuzile said on Wednesday evening that the World Bank had told Eskom that it is prepared to lend US$5bn. "We are looking for legal ways to expedite this," he said.
Fuzile also disclosed that the government was asked by Eskom on November 19 to give guarantees for the loans they are seeking.
He said he expects the guarantees to be in place by March 31.
Eskom, which provides 95 percent of the country's power, has been rationing electricity since January, when the national grid nearly collapsed, affecting major industries, including mining.
In its bid to reverse years of underinvestment in power, and to ease chronic power shortages, Eskom plans to spend a total of about R343bn over five years on new power plants.
Fuzile told Reuters that Eskom was also in discussions with a range of export credit agencies for funds, but did not elaborate.
Eskom's task to find funding was made more daunting by the global credit squeeze and a downgrade from A1 to Baa2 by rating agency Moody's in August this year.
The utility has said it would raise further funds from capital markets, higher power tariffs or loans with development agencies such as the World bank and the AfDB.
Earlier Eskom spokesperson Fani Zulu told Reuters the company was not planning to sell a Eurobond this year.
Chief Executive Jacob Maroga told Reuters in July the utility was planning a dollar-denominated Eurobond issue roughly equal in value to the €500m issue made in February 2006 |
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