Helios Nexus Energy – Business Plan
Investment-grade business plan for Helios Nexus Energy Holdings (Pty) Ltd — an R28.8-billion capital programme (2026–2036) to build a vertically-integrated renewable energy, storage and trading platform across South Africa and five neighbouring SADC countries, combining utility-scale solar and wind generation, battery energy storage and corporate power trading, scaling to 7.5 GW of generation and storage and R30.8 billion of Year-10 revenue with roughly 14 TWh of annual electricity sales, funded by a stack of ~R17.8bn equity/quasi-equity, R8.0bn senior debt and a R3.0bn green bond, delivering an equity IRR of about 36% at a conservative 9× EBITDA exit while avoiding around 18 million tonnes of CO2 a year.
Confidential Information Memorandum & Funding Proposal
Helios Nexus Energy
A vertically-integrated renewable energy, storage and trading platform for Southern Africa — utility-scale solar and wind generation, battery energy storage and corporate power trading across six countries, scaling to 7.5 GW of generation and storage by Year 10 — structured as an R28.8-billion capital programme (2026–2036) for infrastructure and pension funds, climate-finance mandates, DFIs and green-bond investors.
Southern Africa faces a deep, persistent power deficit and a decisive energy transition, and demand for clean, firm, tradeable power is scaling across the region — the market spans South Africa and five neighbouring SADC countries, each with under-developed generation and growing corporate and utility offtake appetite. Helios Nexus Energy pursues this as a vertically-integrated platform combining utility-scale solar and wind generation, battery energy storage and corporate power trading, scaling to 7.5 GW of generation and storage by Year 10 and roughly 14 TWh of annual electricity sales. An R28.8-billion capital programme through 2036 — a funding stack of approximately R17.8 billion of equity and quasi-equity, R8.0 billion of senior debt and a R3.0 billion green bond — scales the platform to R30.8 billion of Year-10 revenue, avoids around 18 million tonnes of CO₂ a year and supports roughly 6,000 direct jobs, delivering an equity IRR of about 36% at a ~8.8× multiple. As the plan notes, the exit is struck at a conservative 9× EBITDA against the sponsor’s 11×, so the investment does not depend on an aggressive multiple, and debt-service cover stays above 1.0× throughout the build-out.
Plan Contents
This investor-grade business plan is organised into the sections below. Each section is a dedicated page — select any to explore the full detail.
- 1Executive Summary
- 2Company Overview
- 3Market & Industry Analysis
- 4Business Model & Revenue Streams
- 5Competitive Analysis
- 6Development Programme
- 7Operations & Management
- 8Financial Plan
- 9Funding Structure & Implementation Roadmap
- 10Risk Analysis
- 11ESG & Development Impact
- 12Exit Strategy & Investor Returns
- 13Conclusion
- 14Appendices
Important Notice & Disclaimer
This comprehensive business plan (the “Plan”) has been prepared by
Helios Nexus Energy Holdings (Pty) Ltd (“Helios Nexus” or the “Company”)
to provide prospective investors and lenders with information regarding
its proposed vertically-integrated renewable energy, storage and trading
platform across Southern Africa. It is furnished on a strictly
confidential basis to a limited number of sophisticated institutional
recipients and may not be reproduced or distributed, in whole or in
part, without the Company’s prior written consent.
This Plan does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of
an offer to purchase securities in any jurisdiction, nor financial
advice as contemplated in the Financial Advisory and Intermediary
Services Act, 37 of 2002. Prospective investors should conduct their own
independent due diligence and obtain independent legal, tax, technical,
grid and financial advice. Helios Nexus is a development-stage platform;
while its strategy draws on established South African IPPs, traders and
aggregators (such as Envusa Energy, NOA Group, Etana Energy and
Enpower), it is an independent venture and no representation is made
that it is affiliated with, endorsed by, or will replicate the results
of any existing operator.
The projections in this Plan are forward-looking statements resting
on assumptions about grid-connection availability, tariffs, corporate
PPA and wheeling volumes, capital costs, construction timelines,
exchange rates and interest rates — all inherently uncertain. Renewable
energy and energy-trading in South Africa face specific, well-documented
constraints: grid-connection capacity is a binding limit, and the
electricity-trading framework is still being finalised — NERSA published
notice in July 2025 of its intention to develop formal Trading Rules
(anticipated for gazetting around mid-2026), and Eskom’s Virtual
Wheeling Platform, launched in June 2025, initially excluded third-party
traders pending those rules. Where this Plan departs materially from the
sponsor’s headline case — most importantly in independently re-deriving
net profit below EBITDA (which, after full depreciation and interest, is
lower than the sponsor’s figures), in observing that the blended EBITDA
margin plateaus near 44–47% because the trading and wheeling divisions
are high-revenue, low-margin pass-through businesses, and in valuing the
exit at a conservative 9x EBITDA alongside the sponsor’s 11x — these
differences are disclosed deliberately and are central to the investment
decision.
Figures are in South African Rand (ZAR) unless stated; “m” and “bn”
denote millions and billions, “GW”/”MW” gigawatts/megawatts, “GWh”/”TWh”
gigawatt- and terawatt-hours. Certain totals may not cast exactly due to
rounding. The sponsor’s headline funding requirement is stated as R24.8
billion, while the capital-requirements schedule sums to R28.8 billion;
this Plan models the fully-costed R28.8 billion programme, and flags the
discrepancy in Section 8. Industry statistics are drawn from public
sources including the DMRE/DEE, NERSA, NTCSA/Eskom, SALGA, GreenCape,
the CSIR and legal and market commentary, and are believed reliable but
not independently verified. The independently re-derived three-statement
model ties in every projection year.
Confidential — this business plan is provided to prospective investors and lenders for evaluation purposes only and may not be reproduced or distributed without the written consent of Helios Nexus Energy Holdings (Pty) Ltd.