Johannesburg - Standard & Poor's (S&P) has downgraded Eskom's long-term credit rating to junk following the suspension of four of its senior officials, it said on Thursday.
This had led the ratings agency to have less confidence in the company's corporate governance arrangements and its stand-alone credit profile, primary credit analyst Karim Nassif said.
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"The negative outlook reflects our opinion that material execution risk remains associated with the government's support plan, and that Eskom's operating performance has not yet stabilised due to rising costs and the very tight generation capacity margin in South Africa."
Eskom's previous S&P rating was BBB-.