South Africa's dominant, vertically integrated electricity utility. Government ownership and explicit support through capital injections and guarantees. Revenues regulated under multiyear tariff framework. Very substantial, largely debt-funded capital expenditures program. Weak debt coverage ratios during build program. Political interference in tariff setting. Sector restructuring risks in the longer term. The 'BBB' rating on South African power utility ESKOM Holdings SOC Ltd. (ESKOM) reflects Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' opinion that there is an "extremely high" likelihood that the Republic of South Africa (foreign currency BBB/Negative/A-2; local currency A-/Negative/A-2) would provide timely and sufficient extraordinary support to ESKOM in the event of financial distress. We assess the stand-alone credit profile (SACP) of ESKOM as 'b'. In accordance with our criteria for
