We consider South Africa-based power utility ESKOM Holdings Ltd. (ESKOM) to be a government-related entity under our criteria and we assess the likelihood of extraordinary support to be "extremely high". On Jan. 25, 2011, we lowered the long-term local currency rating on the Republic of South Africa to 'A' from 'A+', revised the outlook to stable from negative, and affirmed the long-term foreign currency rating at 'BBB+'. In line with our GRE criteria, we are revising the outlook on ESKOM to stable from negative and affirming the long-term foreign and local currency corporate credit ratings at 'BBB+'. The stable outlook reflects that on the Republic of South Africa and our view that that the downward pressure on ESKOM's stand-alone credit
