UK-based global bank Standard Chartered will stay the course and continue to provide funding to some state-owned enterprises.
Earlier this year the National Treasury flew to SAA's rescue with an emergency bailout to help the airline repay a R2.2-billion loan to Standard Chartered, after the bank refused to extend the loan facility.
Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba reshuffled SAA's board this week, with Dudu Myeni finally exiting as chairwoman, as pressure for her removal mounted from a consortium of lenders to which the airline owes billions.
Despite this, Standard Chartered will continue doing deals with Eskom, SAA, the Land Bank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa, in line with its strategy to remain invested in Africa.
"Whether that be through funding, through financial markets, through risk management [or] through access to debt capital markets through the Asian investors, there's a critical role that we can play for a lot of them," said Chris Egberink, Standard Chartered's head of global banking in South Africa. "We are not naive to the risks that are sitting in the country but we believe this will pass and we will continue to invest in South Africa."
The FBI and UK regulators this week launched a money-laundering probe to establish whether Standard Chartered and other banks had ties to the Guptas. The bank said the family's accounts were closed in early 2014, but it could not comment on clients' transactions.
Another international lender, which declined to be named, has also maintained its appetite for continued dealings with SOEs, according to a company insider, who said the bank was satisfied with the Treasury's commitment to addressing poor governance.
Egberink said while governance may be a concern, it is not the only factor the bank scrutinises before offering funding.
"Every client and transaction, irrespective of the sector, has to go through our internal review process before we make a decision to proceed or otherwise," he said.
Nedbank, also owed money by SAA, said it would also continue to fund SOEs, but investment manager Futuregrowth has not shown the same degree of confidence.
It recently warned that governance lapses at Umgeni Water, including the sacking of its board, threatened the state-owned utility's ability to raise capital.
Futuregrowth last year announced its decision to freeze R1.8-billion worth of funding to six SOEs, including Eskom, the Land Bank, the Industrial Development Corporation and Transnet, but later backpedalled.
Andrew Canter, chief investment officer at Futuregrowth, said on Thursday that although all SOEs were not the same, "part of the difficulty is that it is impossible to assess when governance standards would be restored at some SOEs".
"As capital providers we shouldn't be lending money to entities that don't have sustainable practices, and by sustainable I mean sustainable governance and anticorruption measures," he said.
"We allocate capital in the economy. If we don't do it responsibly, who is going to?"
Nazmeera Moola, co-head of fixed income at Investec Asset Management and an outgoing SAA board member, said poor governance at SOEs continued to threaten South Africa's credit rating.
"Unfortunately, there has also been no progress made in terms of improving the situation. This places additional pressure on the fiscus. Both Eskom and Transnet appear to be running short on liquidity [and] it is hardly surprising that these companies are unable to access financial markets locally," she said.
Moola said it would be increasingly difficult to justify further bailouts to companies with questionable governance. "The only way to resolve this is to overhaul governance and so restore investor confidence in these institutions." - Additional reporting by Asha Speckman
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