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South Africa's Public Investment Corporation (PIC), the continent's largest fund manager, will meet in November to consider options on how to help embattled state-run power utility Eskom deal with its debt, the Sunday Times reported, citing PIC chair Reuel Khoza.
A strategy meeting would look at how the asset manager could "come to the rescue or assist" Eskom Holdings, the newspaper cites Khoza saying.
The PIC would make sure "value of pensions doesn't get frittered away" if it steps in to assist the debt-laden power utility, Khoza said. The PIC, which manages about $150bn and is responsible for the pensions of more than 1 million state workers, owns about R90bn of Eskom debt.
Eskom is saddled with about R450bn of debt.
Bloomberg reported earlier that Cabinet is due to meet again on October 31, two days after Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is scheduled to release his mid-term budget that should spell out how he'll fund a three-year, R128bn bailout for Eskom.
Investors are looking for greater urgency to be shown in getting the company, considered the biggest threat to the SA economy, back on track.
"The main concern of all foreign investors is to fix Eskom," said Colin Coleman, CEO of sub-Saharan Africa at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
"We expect a phase of stabilisation of Eskom in terms of governance, operations and finances to come in by the end of the year, following which a corporate restructure will start."
