Eskom says it is not on the brink of bankruptcy and will cooperate with ratings agencies to avoid downgrades.

The state-owned utility faces a serious liquidity crunch and has had to implement frequent power cuts to prevent the grid from being overwhelmed.

In a parliamentary briefing on Wednesday acting CEO, Brian Molefe, defended the utility saying that from a cash position Eskom has a substantial amount of facilities that have been negotiated but not drawn down.

Eskom, which imposed power cuts for a 10th day running on Wednesday, has an estimated funding gap to 2018 of R200 billion. According to Molefe the firm expects to receive R23 billion from the government this year.

“We do not think that Eskom is about to be declared bankrupt or insolvent,” Molefe said of the struggling utility.

Standard & Poor’s in March cut its credit ratings for the cash-strapped Eskom to junk following the suspension of the utility’s CEO and three other senior executives while an investigation on the firm was being conducted.

“We will be engaging with rating agencies to find out what it is they would like to see for Eskom to be re-rated investment grade, and we will do everything that they say we should do to bring it back,” Molefe said.

–Reuters