Commercial, industrial & manufacturing
Funding for businesses with a real load
If you are energy-intensive, there are concessionary routes worth far more than a rate negotiation on ordinary asset finance. Some of them we are still confirming — and we will not quote you a rate we have not verified.
Khula Credit Guarantee
SEDFA
A guarantee that stands in place of collateral with a partner lender. It rescues deals declined on SECURITY rather than affordability — which most borrowers never think to ask for.
Every route open to you.
Who each one takes, who it rules out, and the one thing to know before you pick it. Anything not listed here is missing because this kind of business structurally cannot use it. Term, rate, ownership and tax for every product are defined once on the funding hub.
Asset finance
A term loan against the plant. You own it, and you owe for it.
- Who qualifies
- Any trading entity with the cash flow to service it and something to secure it against
- Who it excludes
- Entities with no balance sheet to lend against — bodies corporate and HOAs — and businesses with no taxable income, for whom the allowance is worth little
Worth knowing up front. Declined on security is not the same as declined on affordability. The first can be fixed with a guarantee; the second cannot.
Section 12B fund structure
A fund takes the asset and the allowance; you take the output at a lower cost.
- Who qualifies
- Commercial and industrial sites of a size a fund will take on
- Who it excludes
- Small sites, and anyone who wants to own the plant
Rental
You rent the plant. The funder owns it and maintains it.
- Who qualifies
- Businesses that cannot or do not want to carry the asset on the balance sheet, and anyone with no taxable income to point an allowance at
- Who it excludes
- Nothing structural — but it costs more in total than owning
Worth knowing up front. Maintenance sits with the funder for the term, which is worth real money on a remote site. Insurance does not — you arrange that yourself.
Rent-to-own
A rental that ends with the plant becoming yours.
- Who qualifies
- Anyone who wants ownership eventually but not the capital event now
- Who it excludes
- Nothing structural
Worth knowing up front. The buy-out is typically around 10%. At that moment maintenance becomes your problem and your tax position changes — model it before you get there.
PPA
You buy the electricity, not the system.
- Who qualifies
- Anyone with no capital, no tax appetite or no balance sheet — and bodies corporate, for whom it is usually the only workable structure
- Who it excludes
- Nothing structural, but it is the most expensive route across twenty years
Worth knowing up front. The escalation rate is the number that decides this deal. This market commonly runs 5% to 10% a year, and at 7% the payment roughly doubles over ten years. Get it in writing before you present it to anyone.
Water finance / WPA
The same structures applied to water: buy the equipment, or buy the water it delivers.
- Who qualifies
- Any site where water supply or quality is a constraint — and it can be bundled with the generation that runs it
- Who it excludes
- It cannot be funded inside the Agro Energy Fund, which covers the energy asset only
Khula Credit Guarantee
Not a loan. A guarantee that stands in place of collateral with a partner lender.
- Who qualifies
- Any SMME declined for want of security rather than affordability
- Who it excludes
- Deals that fail on affordability — a guarantee does not improve cash flow
Worth knowing up front. If a lender declined you, find out in writing whether it was on security or on affordability; only the first is what a guarantee fixes.
What we can tell you today
Commercial asset finance across our panel, priced at prime plus one to four depending on covenant and term. You own the plant from day one and claim Section 12B on the full qualifying cost — up to 1MW, that is a 100% year-one deduction.
Section 12B fund structures, where a fund takes the asset and the allowance and you take the output at a lower cost than you would otherwise pay.
A PPA, for a business that cannot or will not deploy capital, or has no tax appetite to use.
What we are confirming before we publish it
There are IDC facilities aimed squarely at energy-intensive and manufacturing businesses that price materially below commercial asset finance, over materially longer tenures. One of them, if its current terms are what we believe, would be the strongest single product on this site.
We are confirming the terms directly with the IDC and will not put numbers on this page until we have. A concessionary rate quoted on trust and then withdrawn costs a client a month of planning, so it stays off until it is verified. Ask us and we will tell you exactly where that stands.
Already bought a system? The capital can come back out
Sale-and-leaseback: you sell an existing plant to a provider and move onto a PPA, releasing the capital you originally sank into it. It is a distinct route and worth knowing about, particularly because the Agro Energy Fund explicitly cannot serve you here — refinancing an existing system is barred.
The guarantee most businesses never ask for
Declined on security rather than on affordability is a different conversation, and the Khula Credit Guarantee exists to stand in for the collateral you cannot offer.
Process water, on the same facility
For a lot of manufacturers water is the constraint that actually stops production, and municipal supply is no longer something to plan around confidently. Treatment, reuse and on-site abstraction finance through the same panel as the generation, on one credit assessment.
Where the process is water-intensive, reuse changes the operating cost far faster than generation does. It is worth pricing both before committing to either.
- Boreholes, abstraction and pump systems
- Reverse osmosis, filtration and treatment plant
- Effluent treatment and process water reuse
- Storage and reticulation for production continuity
A note on how these interact with the tax position
Section 12B is an energy allowance. Water treatment plant does not fall inside it, and is dealt with under the ordinary capital allowance rules for plant and machinery instead. That is a question for your tax practitioner rather than for us, but it is worth knowing before you model a blended water-and-power project as though the whole thing attracts a 100% year-one deduction.
Good questions.
Above 1MW, what changes?
The deduction spreads 50% / 30% / 20% over three years instead of 100% in year one. The 2025 Budget confirmed the 1MW threshold is not being revised.
Two minutes, free, and non-binding. Every answer carries a route, including the ones that rule a programme out.
Before you rely on any of this
ArkFlow is not accredited by, empanelled with, or appointed as an agent of Land Bank, the IDC, DALRRD, the Department of Tourism, SEDFA or the NEF. Government and DFI programmes are applied for by you. We help you prepare and submit; you remain the applicant.
ArkFlow is not a financial services provider and does not give financial advice, and is not a registered tax practitioner. Nothing on this page is a quote, an offer of finance, an approval, or a recommendation to enter into any credit agreement.
Programme terms, grant availability and application windows change without notice. Figures shown are indicative and depend on the administering institution’s own assessment and on funds available at the time. Where a programme runs in windows we will not describe it as open unless a current window is confirmed.