Financing Mobility

Products and value-added service proposition

  • Thelo is building a centre of excellence by providing rolling stock finance solutions to rail operators, concession holders and freight owners in order for them to access rolling stock (locomotives, freight wagons, fuel tankers and passenger cars)
  • This model allows Thelo to acquire rolling stock from original equipment manufacturers and, in turn, lease these assets to its clients through finance or operating leases
  • Thelo further contracts additional technical partners and maintenance service providers to conduct maintenance and related services on the rolling stock for the term of the lease
  • We are Financing Mobility – providing innovative finance for rolling stock and its maintenance across the African continent to help stimulate industrialisation and economic development

Benefits to clients

  • Assisting lessees with their cash flow, eliminating the need for client upfront capital investment
  • Providing lessees with the opportunity to deploy capital to their core business, particularly in the initial and set-up phase pf procuring rolling stock in order to build credibility with their own clients
  • Enabling lessees with limited cash resources to access rolling stock
  • Providing lessees with preferred rolling stock, rather than products limited to a particular manufacturer capability and offering
  • Providing lessees with the opportunity to enter into a finance or operating lease type, depending on their requirements

Milestones achieved

  • Since inception in 2011, Thelo built a strong brand and reputation in the rail sector
  • Thelo has become the financier of choice for manufacturers of rolling stock and numerous users of rolling stock across the African continent

Our Purpose

To become the leading rolling stock financier and asset manager in Africa

Thelo’s strategy is to use our experience and capacity to expand into additional countries on the African continent through integration with Thelo Infrastructure Development and other existing relationships and networks to create the leading rolling stock financing solutions business across the continent, allowing the Company to diversify while adding scale and value to our stakeholders.

  • In most countries, railways have played a key part in economic development and maintaining a dominant role in the transportation of freight and passengers at low cost
  • During the last 50 years road transportation in Africa has expanded rapidly due to the lack of investment and development in the rail sector
  • Accordingly, Thelo was established to respond to the increasing need for reliable and modern rolling stock throughout the African continent and aims to capitalise on the sizeable current and growing market demand
  • Thelo has more than a 10-year track record of successfully investing capital across a spectrum of leases in Sub-Saharan Africa and has developed and refined key documentation to support leasing and maintenance structures for rolling stock, along with a proprietary pricing model vetted by one of the top four global accounting firms
  • Thelo has positioned itself as the vendor finance partner to manufacturers in order to stimulate sales of rolling stock across the African continent
  • Furthermore, Thelo is positioned to act as intermediary, buyer and supplier, in rolling stock transactions between manufacturers and users in the market
  • Thelo has a large growth horizon complemented by its current strong transaction pipeline and will use the organisation’s intellectual property, talent, experience and capacity in creating innovative rolling stock financing solutions while building sustainable relationships with clients, employees and stakeholders