The operational plan front-loads the highest-barrier, highest-return assets, grain infrastructure and logistics, while sequencing feed mills and additional silo clusters into Years 2 and 3 as the balance sheet and cash flows mature. Capital expenditure is phased rather than deployed up-front, materially reducing early-year funding strain and construction risk.
10.1 Capital-expenditure programme
|
Asset class |
Capex (US$m) |
Useful life |
Depreciation |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Grain infrastructure |
180 |
25 yrs |
Straight-line |
|
Equipment division |
75 |
10 yrs |
Straight-line |
|
Retail infrastructure |
40 |
15 yrs |
Straight-line |
|
Feed mills |
65 |
20 yrs |
Straight-line |
|
Logistics fleet |
35 |
8 yrs |
Straight-line |
|
Technology systems |
20 |
5 yrs |
Straight-line |
|
Total depreciable capex |
415 |
||
|
Working capital & finance first-loss |
85 |
— |
— |
|
Total initial uses |
500 |
10.2 Phased infrastructure build-out
The Phase-1 asset base is commissioned progressively over the first three years, shown below on a cumulative year-end basis. Front-loading grain storage and logistics establishes the origination and handling network that every other division draws on; retail, dealerships and feed mills scale in behind it as farmer relationships and grain flows build.
|
Asset (cumulative, year-end) |
Y1 |
Y2 |
Y3 (Phase-1 target) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Grain storage capacity (MT) |
150,000 |
350,000 |
500,000 |
|
|
Equipment dealerships |
4 |
9 |
12 |
|
|
Retail stores |
8 |
18 |
25 |
|
|
Feed mills |
— |
1 |
2 |
|
|
Logistics depots |
6 |
13 |
18 |
|
|
Workshops |
3 |
7 |
10 |
|
|
Truck fleet |
25 |
55 |
80 |
|
|
NOTE — Utilisation, not construction, sets the ramp Commissioning an asset is not the same as filling it. The revenue model assumes storage and feed utilisation climbs over two to three seasons after commissioning as farmer relationships mature. The gap between physical completion (Year 3) and full utilisation is precisely why EBITDA continues ramping into Years 4–5. |
||||
10.3 Procurement & construction approach
Construction risk is the largest single execution exposure, so it is managed through contracting structure rather than optimism. The approach rests on four principles:
- Fixed-price, date-certain EPC contracts for silos and mills, with liquidated-damages and performance security.
- Staged drawdowns released against independently certified construction milestones, not calendar dates.
- An owner’s engineer supervising quality, cost and schedule across all major civil works.
- A construction contingency and a liquidity buffer sized to absorb a plausible three-to-six-month permitting or delivery slip without breaching covenants.
StrengthPhasing is the risk control
Because capital is deployed over three years against certified milestones rather than up front, the plan avoids the classic infrastructure failure mode of sinking the full raise before any asset earns. Each tranche of spend is matched to a commissioned, revenue-generating asset.