South Africa seeks lesser of two evils with Eskom debt options

South Africa’s National Treasury is considering whether it would be better to move a chunk of Eskom Holdings’ R464-billion of debt into a special-purpose vehicle (SPV) or have the State take over responsibility for it directly, people familiar with the situation said. While banks have led discussions for the last few weeks over the creation of a so-called SPV that would take over at least R100-billion of Eskom’s debt, and possibly much more, that debt would almost certainly have to be guaranteed by the government, the three people said, asking not to be identified because an announcement hasn’t been made.