Nala AgriServices — Executive Summary

The opportunity in brief, the business model, the market, the financial highlights and the ask underpinning Nala AgriServices.

Section 1 · Business Plan

Executive Summary

The opportunity in brief, the business model, the market, the financial highlights and the ask underpinning Nala AgriServices.

Nala AgriServices (Pty) Ltd is a South African
agricultural-services company that combines contract mechanisation,
precision-farming and drone application, agronomy advisory, and input
aggregation into a single, asset-backed platform serving commercial and
emerging farmers across the Free State grain belt and adjacent districts
of the North West and Northern Cape. The Company’s proposition is
simple: most South African farmers do not need to own more equipment —
they need reliable, precisely-executed field operations delivered on
time, on a per-hectare basis, backed by data.

The venture is positioned at the intersection of three powerful
structural tailwinds: a decisive recovery in South African agriculture,
a wide and well-documented mechanisation deficit, and the
fastest-growing precision-agriculture market on the continent. It is
designed from inception to be bankable — conservatively geared,
asset-collateralised, and underpinned by recurring, contracted, seasonal
revenue.

1.1 The opportunity in brief

A sector in structural recovery — South African
agriculture, forestry and fishing contributed roughly R135 billion to
GDP in 2025 and expanded by about 17% year-on-year, the strongest
performance of any sector of the economy, on the back of a summer-crop
harvest near 19.6 million tonnes.
A persistent mechanisation gap — Sub-Saharan
Africa averages fewer than two tractors per 1,000 hectares of arable
land against roughly ten in South Asia and Latin America — a gap that
contract mechanisation is uniquely placed to close without requiring
farmers to carry the capital cost of ownership.
Explosive precision-farming adoption — The
number of activated agricultural spray drones in South Africa rose from
around 60 units in 2021 to approximately 2,000 by 2025, with
drone-treated area approaching two million hectares — a market whose
economics (roughly 75% lower fuel use than manned aircraft, reduced
chemical drift, and access to difficult terrain) make outsourced
provision compelling.

Figure 1

Figure 1 South African agriculture rebounded sharply in 2025, the strongest-growing sector of the economy.

1.2 The business model

Nala earns revenue across four integrated service lines, each
reinforcing the others through a shared client base, shared logistics,
and a common data platform:

Service line	What Nala delivers	Revenue basis
Contract mechanisation	Tillage, planting and harvesting with a modern tractor, planter and combine fleet	Per hectare, per operation
Precision & drone services	Drone spraying, variable-rate application, NDVI/thermal crop scouting	Per hectare + data fees
Agronomy & advisory	Soil testing, agronomy retainers, digital farm-management dashboard	Retainer + subscription
Input aggregation	Bulk seed, fertiliser and crop-protection procurement and distribution	Distribution margin

Why this model is bankable

Recurring and contracted — seasonal service contracts with commercial
anchor farmers provide visibility over per-hectare volumes ahead of each
planting and harvest window. Asset-backed — senior debt is secured against a liquid, re-saleable
fleet of tractors, combines and drones with established secondary
markets. Counter-cyclical to ownership — in tight credit conditions farmers
defer equipment purchases and outsource, expanding Nala’s addressable
demand. Development-aligned — the smallholder mechanisation-service-provider
model attracts blended and concessional capital from the Land Bank, IDC
and DBSA and strengthens B-BBEE credentials.

1.3 Financial highlights

Over the five-year plan the Company scales from
R52.0m of revenue in FY2027 to R211.8m
in FY2031, with EBITDA expanding from a thin R1.4m (a
3.0% margin in the launch year) to R50.9m (24.0%) as
the fleet reaches efficient utilisation. The plan turns net-profit
positive in FY2029 and delevers rapidly thereafter.

Equity IRR (base case)

54%

Equity money multiple

8.8×

Project (unlevered) IRR

46%

Equity IRR (downside)

32%

	FY2027	FY2028	FY2029	FY2030	FY2031
Revenue	R52.0m	R86.9m	R127.8m	R169.8m	R211.8m
EBITDA	R1.4m	R10.5m	R22.5m	R36.0m	R50.9m
EBITDA margin	3.0%	12.0%	18.0%	21.0%	24.0%
Net income	(R8.3m)	(R2.3m)	R6.3m	R15.5m	R26.1m
DSCR	0.63×	0.90×	1.54×	2.08×	3.00×
Net debt / EBITDA	15.3×	2.9×	1.4×	0.5×	-0.2×

Figure 2

Figure 2 The profit-and-loss trajectory: ramp-year losses give way to strong profitability by FY2029.

1.4 The funding ask

Nala is seeking a total initial funding package of
R57m at financial close, comprising R35m of
equity and a R22m senior equipment-finance term
loan, supported by a R15m committed revolving working-capital
facility and two pre-committed expansion tranches (Tranche B of R14m in
FY2028 and Tranche C of R10m in FY2029) that fund the mid-plan fleet
step-up. Inception gearing of 48% is conservative for an asset-backed
venture and delevers to 18% by FY2031.

Uses of funds (at close)	R’m	Share
Fleet, equipment & platform capex	R44.1m	81.7%
Pre-launch working capital	R5.0m	9.3%
Debt-service reserve account	R3.0m	5.6%
Contingency	R1.9m	3.5%
Total uses at close	R54.0m	100%

1.5 Key risks — disclosed up front

Management believes the following are the plan’s most material risks.
Each is examined in detail in Section 11, with mitigants summarised here
for transparency:

Principal risks and first-order mitigants

Ramp-year coverage. DSCR is below 1.0× in FY2027
(0.63×) and FY2028 (0.90×). Mitigated by a 12-month capital grace on
each senior tranche, a R3m debt-service reserve, revolver headroom and a
sponsor standby undertaking. Aggressive growth trajectory. Revenue compounds at
roughly 42% per annum off a low base; this is capacity-backed (tied to
fleet additions and defensible utilisation) rather than
market-share-driven, and stress-tested in the downside case. Exit-multiple dependency. A meaningful portion of
equity value is realised at exit. The base case assumes a conservative
5.5× EV/EBITDA; a 4.5× downside still returns 32% to equity. Climatic & biosecurity exposure. Drought, hail
and foot-and-mouth-type events affect volumes. Mitigated by geographic
spread, service diversification across the crop calendar, and
weather-indexed contract terms.

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 Nala AgriServices (Pty) Ltd.