We expect the South African government's planned South African rand (ZAR) 254 billion ($14 billion) debt relief agreement will address Eskom's near-term debt obligations once implemented and give Eskom room to focus on operational improvements and electricity sector reform targets. We expect the agreement to improve Eskom's liquidity and capital structure, and put the company on a path to financial sustainability, notwithstanding severe operating challenges that remain. We therefore placed our ratings on Eskom on CreditWatch with positive implications, including our 'CCC+' issuer credit rating and 'zaB' South Africa national scale long-term rating. The CreditWatch placement reflects that we could raise the rating by one or more notches based on our expectation that the debt relief agreement, when implemented, will
