Eskom on Friday said it made a net loss of R20.5-billion in its financial year ending in March 2020, down slightly from R20.9-billion the previous year.
But the company, which struggles to power the economy and is reliant on government bailouts, said it expects to make a larger loss of R26.2-billion in the current financial year ending in March 2021.
The expected deterioration is primarily because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on electricity sales, it said in a presentation.
Eskom’s debt rose to about R484-billion from roughly R441-billion a year earlier. The new debt figure is equivalent to more than 9% of South Africa’s GDP. — Reported by Alexander Winning, (c) Reuters