Abdul Ghani Bawany (FCA, FPA, AFA)

I am currently associated with the flagship company of Al Othman Group, operating in the region for over 3 decades and engaged in the production, processing, and marketing & sales of dairy and juice products, operating with 28 branches all across KSA and GCC as its Chief Financial Officer . In addition, I am also the Member of Group’s IT Committee.

My responsabilities are to supervising the overall financial functions of the company and its operations in KSA and GCC (Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain & UAE) including treasury, finance and accounts, costing, insurance, leasing, fixed assets, budgeting, cost control, ERP, corporate matters and statutory and operational reporting in addition to being responsible for financial planning, analysis and having liaison with banks, insurance companies, auditors, consultants, etc.

I am reporting to the Chief Executive Officer.

I joined the Co. soon after its Incorporation was associated with Byco Group as Sr. Manager & CFO of (i) Byco Oil Pakistan Ltd, relocating & setting up Oil Refinery, (ii) Byco Chemicals Pakistan Ltd, relocating & setting up an Aromatic Plant (iii) Byco Energy Pakistan Ltd, Co. intended to set up Power Plant & (iv) Trustee of Group’s Retirement Benefit Funds. Subsequently, mergerd the above Cos. into Byco Oil Pakistan Limited.
Responsibility includes overall financial functions of the Cos. including treasury, insurance, leasing, assets, budgeting, cost control, tax matters & having liaison with banks, insurance companies & brokers, leasing companies, auditors, advisors.
Further, I have gained experience & performed the followings at Byco:
•Registration of cos. at various business chambers, government authorities, tax & audits.
•Setting up finance function / department, related hiring & SAP implementation.
•Involved in reviewing & finalizing various contracts relating to Projects including deconstruction, reconstruction, designing, civil works, refurbishments, procurements and transportation.
•Liaising with financial, technical, legal & insurance consultants & advisors.
•Arranged financing facilities of PKR 6.25 billion (US$ 105 million) and PKR 2.50 billion (US$ 32 million) from a single bank.
•Coordination with legal counsels for debt arrangement.
•Actively involved in execution of PE investment transaction along with CEO.
•Coordination with technical, legal, financial & insurance advisors/team of buyer’s side in relation to PE investment transaction.
•Corresponding with Competition Commission in relation to PE Investment transaction.
•Excelled in financial modeling, business planning and forecasting, project management.
•Corresponding with regulatory authorities & ministries regarding Projects.
•Gained experience of Project Management, both financially & technically due to close coordination with project teams, offsite as well as onsite.

During this period I was associated with Total Oil Pakistan Limited (former Total Atlas Lubricants Pakistan (Private) Limited), a subsidiary of TOTAL France - fortune 500 company, as its Chief Accountant and Company Secretary.

I was responsible for the financial functions of the company including treasury, insurance, leasing, fixed assets, tax matters, statutory and operational reporting etc. and have liaison with banks, insurance companies & brokers, leasing companies, auditors, advisors, regulators etc.

As a Company Secretary, my responsibilities also include managing the corporate affairs of the company wherein I have gained experience in amendment in Memorandum and Articles of Association (constitution documents), Increasing of Authorized and Paid-up Share Capital, Rights Issue of Shares, Joint Venture arrangements, convening various meetings of the Directors and Shareholders and dealing with other corporate related matters.

My reporting was to the Managing Director and Board of Directors (comprising members representing TOTAL and Atlas Group).

I remained associated with the largest public listed insurance company in Pakistan having more than 75 branches/offices (including in UAE), as its Chief Internal Auditor and reported to the Board of Directors. Prior to holding this position, I was working in the capacity of Senior Manager - Investments.

As a Chief Internal Auditor, I was responsible for the overall audit and risk function of the Company and its local and foreign branches. As the Senior Manager Investment, I managed the investment portfolio of the company of ~US$80 million comprising of both listed and unlisted securities, certificates, debentures and fixed income securities.

Further, being part of the ERP review and implementation team, I was actively involved in the ERP (Oracle) system evaluation, financial process re-engineering and suggesting and implementation of system based internal controls.

I was reporting to the Board of Directors / Chief Investment Officer.

During the above period, I was associated with Philip Morris Pakistan Limited (a public listed company and former Lakson Tobacco Company Limited), a fortune 500 company, a leading FMCG Company in the industry and the leading company in Lakson Group of Companies, as Head of Marketing Finance.

My responsibilities included product pricing and forecasting, costing, preparation of marketing and capital budgets, supervision of audit, monitoring of payments relating to field merchandising, monitoring of vendor account positions, review of proposals for trade offer schemes, monitoring and controlling of credit facilities allowed to various distributors to manage credit risk and monitoring marketing/merchandising inventory levels. The value of responsibilities was ~US$40 million.

My responsibilities also included review of existing systems for reporting requirements relating to field merchandising, coordination with concerns in making necessary changes therein, suggesting improvement to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of existing systems and development of new reports and formats. I was also responsible for monitoring the utilization of marketing budget and involved in various levels of reporting including those that were submitted to foreign partners (Philip Morris International).

I was reporting to the Executive Director.

My association with Ernst & Young has given me the exposure to work with many industries in different sectors of the economy such as Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, Oil & Energy, Textile, Telecommunications, Sugar, Cement, Banks, Insurance, Health Care Services, Research and Training, Information Technology, Engineering and Automobiles, Cargo Services & Freight Forwarders, Property Management, Educational Institutions, Leisure, etc. both locally and internationally.

I also have audit experience at Ernst & Young in Bahrain, wherein I was involved in the audits of Banks, preparation of multiple currency consolidated set of financial statements, preparation of financial statements required for the Central Bank - Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA) and the Prudential Information Returns for the individual and consolidated financial statements.

During my tenure at Ernst & Young, I also went to Aleppo - Syria, for the audit of International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), a World Bank funded organization.