A general view of the headquarter of the embattled South African main electricity provider ESKOM is pictured on February 4, 2015 in Johannesburg. South Africa power supply was under “extreme” pressure on February 2, 2015 and likely to remain so until end of the week after a technical fault at the country’s sole nuclear plant, electricity utility Eskom said. AFP PHOTO/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA (Photo by Gianluigi GUERCIA / AFP) (Photo by GIANLUIGI GUERCIA/AFP via Getty Images)

Dec 13 (Reuters) – South Africa’s struggling state power company Eskom said on Wednesday it made a 1.6 billion rand ($84 million) profit after tax in the first six months of its financial year to the end of September.

The debt-laden utility has this year implemented the worst power cuts on record in Africa’s most industrialised economy.

“Eskom cautions that despite achieving a profit in the first six months, an after-tax loss of 23.2 billion rand is expected by the end of the financial year,” it added in a statement.

Eskom cited poor generating plant performance, tariffs which it says do not allow it to fully recover its costs, high debt servicing costs and non-payment by some customers among reasons for the projected full-year loss.

($1 = 19.0557 rand)

(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Mark Potter)

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