The balance sheet below ties in every year, total assets equal total equity and liabilities, a consistency enforced by assertion in the underlying model. It reflects the asset profile of an integrated produce group: a large bearer-plant and facilities base (orchards, nurseries, packhouses, cold stores and processing plants), working capital that scales with the trading and processing volumes, and a cash buffer maintained through the establishment phase.

Asset backing and collateral cover

The balance sheet is anchored by a large, tangible asset base, 5,800 hectares of orchard (with the land and the bearer plants themselves), packhouses, cold stores, ripening rooms, processing plants and nurseries, that grows to roughly R1.9 billion net of depreciation. For a lender this matters: the debt is secured against real, long-life, cash-generating agricultural assets whose productive life extends well beyond the loan tenor, a well-managed avocado orchard bears for twenty-five years or more, and whose replacement cost, together with the underlying land, would substantially exceed the debt quantum. Working capital scales with revenue at approximately 14%, and the cash balance remains positive throughout, providing a liquidity buffer through the establishment years.

Leverage profile

Net debt to EBITDA peaks at approximately 1.9x in the Year-2–3 construction phase, a comfortable level for an asset-backed agribusiness, before deleveraging steadily to below 0.5x by Year 5 as EBITDA scales and debt amortises. The equity-first drawdown keeps Year-1 net debt negative (the business is in a net-cash position at the outset), and the moderate peak leverage leaves ample covenant headroom.