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South Africa plunged deeper into darkness and its growth outlook dimmed with utility Eskom announcing unprecedented levels of blackouts on Monday, just as President Cyril Ramaphosa said he would take “drastic” steps to turnaround state firms. Earlier, his transport minister appointed an independent adviser to manage the country’s passenger rail firm, just days after a decision to place South African Airways into business rescue - a form of bankruptcy protection. GDP is unlikely to reach even the national treasury’s sharply lowered forecast of 0.5%, increasing instead the likelihood of the country losing its last investment grade credit rating by early 2020. “It’s clearly a full-blown crisis now, for Eskom and the economy. This past week of load shedding will drag growth into a recession,” said independent political economy analyst Daniel Silke. The decision to place SAA into business rescue was the “only way to secure its survival”, Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter on Monday, adding that the move demonstrated the government’s resolve. “We will not allow any of these strategic entities to fail. Rather, we need to take all necessary steps – even drastic ones – to restore them to health,” he said. But the struggling state firms are being kept afloat with bailouts that the government is growing increasingly reluctant to grant.<br/>

Avianca Holdings reached agreements with creditors and secured fresh financing, completing a restructuring of its debt that will free up cash as it pursues a turnaround plan, the Colombian airline said Monday. The Bogota-based carrier received approval from major creditors with whom it had been negotiating since June, when it began to defer principal payments and announced a “re-profiling” of its debt. The company said it secured extensions of bank lines, letters of credit, and other agreements with more than 125 creditors and suppliers. It was a critical step in a plan being pursued by CEO Anko van der Werff and CFO Adrian Neuhauser, who took over mid-year. With the agreements finalized, the company received a $250m loan from stakeholders. It also announced Monday $125m in additional financing, including a commitment from billionaire Ken Griffin’s Citadel. “For the 20,000 employees of Avianca Holdings, this is fantastic news, because the distraction of all of this has been an overhang for management attention,” van der Werff said by telephone. “What we can really do now is focus again on the company.” The management team is putting a plan in place to boost profitability and restore investor confidence by cutting leverage, reducing its fleet size, eliminating unprofitable routes while adding new destinations and focusing on flights through its hub in Bogota. Shares have rallied since they took over, returning 26% in the second half, compared to 5% for Colombia’s benchmark Colcap index.<br/>

Lufthansa will initiate the sale of the parts of its catering unit LSG it is not selling to Switzerland’s Gategroup early next year, the carrier said Monday. Lufthansa announced last month it is selling the European operations of LSG to Gategroup. The businesses it is selling generated revenues of around E1.1b last year - about a third of LSG’s total. On Monday, it said it had concluded that purchase agreement, setting up a new joint venture company for the Frankfurt and Munich operations which provide catering for its flights, with Lufthansa retaining a minority shareholding in that. It added that it would initiate the sale of the rest of the group early in 2020. Lufthansa has said the sale is part of its new strategy to focus on its airline business.<br/>

SAS is to axe its service to Tokyo Narita from Copenhagen, in favour of shifting the flight to the Japanese capital's Haneda airport. SAS says the new Haneda route will commence in time for the summer 2020 season. It will use Airbus A350-900s – the first of which has been newly-delivered to the carrier – for the service. The airline insists the change will give passengers "better access" to downtown Tokyo, and provide greater connectivity to Japan through its Star Alliance partner ANA. SAS says it will drop the Copenhagen-Narita route, served by A340-300s, in order to make the switch. The change will take place before the Olympic Games in Tokyo scheduled to begin in July next year.<br/>