Jehaan Thahir

To support the Director of Corporate Finance, Planning and Analysis by providing investment/project appraisals for existing and prospective opportunities while being involved in the strategic planning process of the group.

Key Responsibility Areas:

 Prepare and provide, on timely manner, financial analysis reports that are used for management decision-making.

 Act as a communication bridge between Finance Management and the business stakeholders.

 Professionally deal with senior stakeholders from different departments, including Operations, Marketing, Supply Chain

 Identify opportunities for improved cost management and efficiency

 Carry out solid segmental analysis and performance attribution analysis

 Candidates may be required to function on the business unit level, or be assigned to specific cost areas such as profitability margin analysis, or labor cost analysis.

Conduct extensive project appraisals & feasibility studies for prospective business opportunities.

Product Pricing - provide feasibility and pricing for new products to cater to varied segments of the business.

Involvement in pricing strategy for Hoshan Pan Gulf.

Provide leadership to the budgeting team and facilitate the successful completion of the group budget.

Detailed financial analysis of Hoshan Pan Gulf (HPG) periodic performance to support and facilitate the decision making process for the Senior Management.

To support the role of the General Manager of the Corporate Finance, Treasury and Strategic Planning unit in advising senior management on group strategy, carrying out investment/project appraisals, participating in the budgeting and strategic planning process and in managing the group’s cash resources, financial risk and liquidity, in addition to providing leadership to the strategy function.

Key Responsibilities

 Provide leadership to and evaluate project proposals and capital investments submitted by business units

 Provide leadership to and participate in the strategic planning process and the budgeting cycle for SBUs assigned from the Apparel & Textile divisions, performing activities in assisting the GM to maintain standards and ensure the process is carried out in a timely manner.

 Carry out investment appraisals, feasibility studies, market research, country research etc. on products/partners so as to provide information for management decision making and for the information of the board on all investments, divestments, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions.

 Support in advising senior management on the Group structure so as to ensure suitable recommendations are made on any restructuring proposals or other such initiatives particularly in relation to tax.

 Establish and maintain policies, procedures, systems and controls for the strategy related activities end-to-end.

A vertically integrated regional player in the Oil palm business, with plantations across Indonesia, and edible oil refining capability in Malaysia and India; Processing edible oils and specialty fats for food applications in confectionery, ice creams/frozen desserts and baking industry; with an annual group turnover of USD 700Mn.

- Budgeting & Control
• Collate all relevant information across departments and compile the budgeted Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Cash flow.
• Review the achievement of the budget quarterly and prepare a projection in light of changes in the Business Plan.
• Setting cost and consumption benchmarks for each plant/process and measuring against actual
• Compare actual costs with budget numbers, understand cost variances for Direct Costs of each plant/process as well as Overheads; determine the reasons; and reporting them on a monthly basis to the Head of Operations.
• Compare Budgeted Revenue and Margins, analyze variances into Product Mix variances, price variances and margin variances, and report findings to Head of Operations

- Costing & Pricing
• Completing a pre-order costing for each new sale contract to assess the viability of the business for sign off from Finance and Sales head.
• Supporting New Product Development initiatives by costing new products being developed prior to commercial launch, comparing pricing against competition and providing feedback.
• Publishing prices daily on a cost plus margin basis, making comparisons with competing products and analyzing reasons for differences.

- Order Management & Commodity Price Exposures
• Ensuring timely updating of the order processing system to compute Long/Short positions on inventory.
• Keeping track of Outstanding Exposure on commodity prices deriving from outstanding contracts

- Financial Accounting & Monthly Closing
• Involved in the timely preparation of monthly financials, rolling projections, and finance quarterly finance reviews.
• Providing list of provision for entries for monthly expenses in closing AP and GL modules
• Inter-company transaction reconciliation
• Reconciliation of Production Cost between accounting system and plant records
• Inventory Closing and Valuation - Depot wise inventory closing.
• Reconciling sales between order processing system and Accounting system to confirm AR module
• Confirming import bank charges and liaison with bank for any differences.

- MIS and Decision Support
• Providing MIS on Order status, outstanding contracts, dispatch status, Ageing of orders and measuring Commodity price exposures, to variety of stakeholders in the plant, corporate office and Senior Management Team
• Publishing Scorecards on sales volumes, margins, debtor’s positions and production information to plant and corporate teams.
• Preparing inputs for monthly financial reviews and Quarterly board papers on the India Business Performance

Team member involved in for the providing back office support for preparing and uploading of the budgets for 18 plantations in the Upstream Business Segment.

- Budget preparation and Budget cycle support

• Preparation of Budget templates for the 18 Plantations
• Internal User Interface -
Ensure completion of data entry on time
Training users for data entry, ensure control checks and balances in place
Issue resolution and final report verification.
Coordinate and make sure that relevant Business Rules are executed to achieve the desired results.
• Client support /Guidance during the Budgetary process mainly with regard to Inputs, processes and final output confirmation.


- Process Improvement and process control

• Undertake improvement and minimize steps involved in the budgeting process Eg- Automation of the mapping process between Hyperion, JDE & Oracle.
• Make sure that budgeting process SLA's are in place for review and customer acceptance.
• Ensure that changes to the processes are understood, applied and documented in the Process Manual. This to be updated on a regular basis and signed by Client on a Quarterly basis

- Learning and Development

• Cross functional Training with the operational team to have a better understanding of the business and its challenges.
• Attend training sessions conducted by Learning and development and impart Train the Trainer knowledge to the team.


- Managing a Team of Data Entry Operators (05 members)

• Familiarize the Operators with the Organizations Core Business and the Hyperion System
• Provide Templates and Desk instructions (DI) to the team for Data entry, uploading Data and Input revisions.
• Monitor and Guide the Operators towards achieving the specific deliverables as per the laid down SLAs.

Completed a spell across key business functions in Finance, Corporate Planning, Business Solutions and Human Resources Management, as a part of an 18 month Management Trainee Programme; reporting into the functional head, and completing a presentation for the CEO.


• Finance
Budgets, Year-end closing and statutory audit, Annual Reports and quarterly Board Papers.
Completed a Palm Oil and Fertilizer price forecasting project using technical analysis.


• Corporate Planning
New Project feasibility studies, SWOT & PEST Analysis for new business ventures in Oil palm plantations in Indonesia, Africa and Asia.


• Business Solutions
Hyperion Financial Module, Oracle R12 budgeting and accounting tools.


• Human Resources Management
Part of team involved in setting up a Training Centre in Indonesia

Gathered experience in HRD function involving

• Compensation & Benefits - Career banding exercise
• HR Operations
• Recruitment
• Performance Management