South African Airways gets 5b rand, told to restructure debt

The National Treasury allocated 5b rand ($350m) to help South African Airways to repay debt, but said the state-owned airline will have to engage with creditors to restructure almost double that amount. SAA has 14.2b rand of repayments due by March, the Treasury said in its mid-term budget statement Wednesday. The company “is not generating sufficient cash to repay its total debt, and will have to negotiate with lenders to refinance or extend maturity dates," it said. The carrier is one of “several” state-owned companies that will struggle to refinance or redeem debt without government assistance at a time when access to credit is becoming more difficult due to weak balance sheets, poor governance and liquidity challenges, the Treasury said. Contingent liabilities due to government guarantees for debt of state companies is a major risk to the fiscal path, it said. <br/>