ALERT: Moody’s downgrades Eskom, Sasol, MTN, ACSA… and more

Jun 14 2017 06:01

Matthew le Cordeur

Cape Town – Moody’s downgraded the credit ratings of Eskom, Sasol, MTN, ACSA and has taken action on eight other South African corporates.

The downgrade follows their decision to downgrade the country’s long-term foreign and local currency debt ratings by one notch from Baa2 to Baa3 with a negative outlook on Friday.

On Monday, it downgraded the credit ratings of South Africa’s top five banks, three development finance institutions, certain City Power and Sanral credit ratings, and 10 regional and local governments.

On Tuesday evening, the downgrade axe continued to fall.

Commenting on Eskom’s downgrade, Eskom’s chief financial officer Anoj Singh said Eskom noted Moody’s rating action as primarily driven by the downgrade of the Sovereign credit rating.

“Eskom has secured 53% of this fiscal year’s funding requirement and we remain resolute that we will fully execute the required funding for the […]

The ratings agency says that the recent Cabinet reshuffle is likely to result in a change in the direction of economic policy.

JOHANNESBURG – Fitch Ratings has announced the downgrade of South Africa to so-called junk status.

It changed its rating to ‘BB+’ from ‘BBB-‘, with the outlook stable.

The ratings agency says that the recent Cabinet reshuffle is likely to result in a change in the direction of economic policy.

This comes after S&P earlier this week downgraded South Africa, citing political instability.

Downgrades to junk from the two agencies could see South Africa drop out of some widely used global bond indexes and force international funds which track them or which are prohibited from holding sub-investment grade securities to sell.

Fitch’s move will almost certainly lead to […]