The South African government should consider recapitalizing the country's state-owned power utility, Eskom, as part of a plan to turn it around, the company's chief executive officer has said.
Phakamani Hadebe told Fastmarkets during an on-stage interview at the 25th Mining Indaba in Cape Town, South Africa, that discussions were continuing with Eskom's main shareholder on how best to help the company."The issue is, who can best help us to optimize Eskom's balance sheet, and it is the shareholder. These are the discussions that are continuing," he said.The company has already made strides toward improving its balance sheet, but is still borrowing to service its debts, which makes recapitalization necessary, Hadebe said.The first questions he asked when he joined Eskom a year-ago, Hadebe said, concerned how the institution could let its tariffs decline from 35% to single digits, and how it could capitalize its assets."The solution has been put on the table and we are looking at that now," he added. "Once we have the solution, the next challenge will be its execution."Eskom has for years struggled with high...