Chief Financial Officer
Noor Takaful PJSC (Dar Al Takaful Group)
Total years of experience :24 years, 1 Months
Financial Reporting:
Responsible for overall financial operations of both entities, Noor Takaful General & Noor Takaful Family covering all lines of business, including monthly management information reporting packs and presenting quarterly results to the Audit Committee and the Board of Directors.
Initiated & executed a financial restructuring plan to ensure compliance with SCA & Insurance Authority regulations and advising the Board on the company’s solvency status in line with the new regulations.
Formulating a turnaround plan for the business, including a focus on reviewing pricing, re-takaful arrangements & management of operating costs.
Reviewed the company’s investment portfolio and advised the Investment Committee on deleveraging and to de-risking the portfolio.
Revised the company’s reserving methodology to ensure completeness and adequacy of technical reserves.
Devised and implemented a new philosophy for the amortization of acquisition costs for the Individual Family business, resulting in significant gains to the company & consistency in margins.
Leading & managing the process for the company’s interactive corporate rating with AM Best.
Leading the annual business plan process with detailed modelling including cash flows and ROI on new Capex.
Develop new strategies given the current business environment and ensure the implementation of such strategies across the organization
Compliance:
Realignment of company’s investment portfolio to ensure compliance with regulations and to maximize asset admissibility & portfolio yield, in line with the company’s risk appetite and liability durations.
Ensuring timely submission of all Insurance Authority & HAAD requirements.
Responsible for managing all Sharia requirements.
Responsible for managing all reporting requirements for the UAE whilst ensuring compliance with local regulations.
Initiated the review of the books and a clean-up process to ensure transparency in financial reporting.
Managed the setup of a separate agency as an LLC and the financial processes to ensure its viability.
Managing the treasury function to ensure adequate liquidity is available to manage company liabilities.
Managed all head office reporting requirements given tight deadlines.
Financial Reporting:
• Setup the Finance function from scratch, designed and implemented new policy & procedures and an effective internal control system.
• Managed all regulatory & compliance issues to arrange for the company’s listing on ADX, Abu Dhabi stock exchange in 2009 & also responsible for successfully arranging the subsequent capital restructuring of the company during 2012.
• Managed the increase in capital via private placement of a convertible bond of AED 100M with AXA Group, including the due diligence & regulatory process.
• Provide support to the Board at a strategic level, develop new strategies given the current business environment and ensure the implementation of such strategies across the organization.
• Responsible for managing all financial, management and regulatory reporting requirements of the organization, including, monthly management information reporting packs and quarterly reporting to the audit committee and the Board of Directors.
• Manage all regulatory reporting requirements for various stakeholders, including filing quarterly / annual audited financial statements and MD&A to ESCA, ADX and meeting the requirements for the U.A.E Insurance Authority.
• Responsible for managing the treasury function, including negotiating and obtaining funded and unfunded facilities from banks to manage working capital requirements.
• Analyse the asset liability framework and recommend investments to match liability durations; ensure optimal utilization of investable capital given the risk appetite as stipulated by the investment committee.
• Prepare annual business plans including detailed financial modelling; provide commentary on variations from plan.
• Overall responsibility for managing a team of finance professionals to ensure IFRS compliance, re-insurance accounting, maintain effective internal controls and to meet all reporting deadlines.
Investor Relations & Corporate Governance:
• Manage the process for conducting annual and extra ordinary general meeting of the stockholders, including submission of all documentation to complete the regulatory requirements for ESCA & ADX.
• Advise the Board and the Board committees on the corporate governance structure as per the UAE Federal law no 6&8 and the ministerial resolution 518.
Preparing feasibilities for the projects in the pipeline, assessing risks & returns using extensive financial modelling.
Assisting the GM in setting up a real estate private equity fund (USD 50M).
Reviewing corporate objectives, assessing the options for the Group’s restructuring.
Managing the setup of new ventures in line with corporate strategy.
Reporting directly to the VP Finance Construction Division, responsible for:
Managing a team of 20 to oversee the finance function for the foundations business including operations in Dubai, Qatar & Oman.
Manage all banking relationships, arranged new funded & unfunded facilities (AED 200M) to meet liquidity requirements.
Liquidity & Risk management, extensive cash forecasting to manage 40 concurrent projects; hedging forex exposure through FRA’s to mitigate currency risk.
Carrying out company’s valuation for a takeover by one of the shareholders.
Develop and oversee the application of robust financial management accounting standards across the company in line with industry best practices.
Design, plan, manage and coordinate the planning and preparation of annual and long term capital and operating budgets in line with company strategy.
Responsible for liaising with corporate legal advisors & internal & external auditors.
Reporting directly to the CFO, responsibilities include:
Manage all Financial & Management accounting & reporting aspects of the DIFC and the entities therein.
Assist the CFO in actively managing the treasury function so as to identify all financial resources available to the company and ensure sufficient funds are always available to meet all short & long term liquidity requirements.
Manage a team of seven within the accounting function on a day to day basis and ensure compliance to IFRS & company policy & procedures.
Responsible for liaising with both the internal & external auditors.
Provide financial / investment analysis to facilitate the decision making by the CFO and senior management.
Member of the core team responsible for the ERP implementation throughout DIFC.
Managed, compiled, co-ordinated & critically reviewed the Annual Business Plans for the entire Group (24 Companies) to ensure that reasonable yet stretched targets for each company were presented to the Board for approval.
Researched, analysed data and prepared business cases for strategic investments / divestments, and also prepared detailed financial feasibilities for new projects / investments using DCF techniques, to ascertain their financial and operational viability to facilitate improved decision making by HOCA & the Board of Directors. Major projects include:
1) Soya Crushing Plant AED 300M, 2) Dubai Marina Tower AED 200M, 3) Acrylic Solid Surface Plant AED 60M, 4) Foods Division Financial Restructuring.
Standardised monthly performance reporting across all Group companies including overseas subsidiaries to facilitate faster & more effective MIS.
Prepared and evaluated monthly Group management reports for submission to the HOCA and the Board of Directors. Commented on Business performance, key performance indicators and also highlighted any anomalies / potential high risk areas to the Group Accounting & Treasury Manager as well as the Group Internal Audit team.
Developed detailed excel based budgeting models / reporting packs (Financial Models) to ensure effective budgeting & improved performance measurement based on key performance indicators.
As part of the Oracle implementation team, assisted both internal customers and the external consultants in designing the Chart of Accounts for the Group and the Oracle Enterprise Structure.
Managed administrative issues relating to two overseas businesses, a Rice Mill based in Pakistan and an Exchange House operating in Kuwait, e.g. arranged BPR exercises, new software implementations, capital expenditure appraisals and internal audits.
Support & assist all Group companies in the implementation of strategic directives given by the HOCA or the Board of Directors from a finance perspective.
Analysed and critically reviewed business performance for specific business areas, compared performance against plan for actuals and estimates together with supporting commentaries.
Provided ALMCO (Asset Liability Management Committee) with the RWA (Risk Weighted Assets) reporting on a regular basis.
Developed validation procedures and financial models for consolidating the forecast for HSBC bank Plc, including non UK entities.
Improved P&L and Balance sheet analysis methodologies and key performance indicator measures.
Developed PCC analysis for all business areas in order to provide high level, line of business analysis.
Enhanced existing budgeting systems to increase accuracy, efficiency and productivity for the financial planning & analysis (FP&A) team.
Management Accounting: Responsible for quarterly sales & marketing expense forecasting for Service Provider (SP) & Enterprise small medium business (ESMB) segments, within Europe, Middle-East & Africa (EMEA).
Prepared financial models in the light of current business environment to provide realistic expense & headcount targets for the SP & ESMB segments.
Month-End Reporting: Provided field support throughout the process & provided detailed post month-end variance analysis at segment and country level.
Systems & Processes: Declared “ Super user ” for Oracle Expense Tracker & supported the whole of EMEA, liaising with FP&A and internet financial systems (IFS) to continually improve systems & processes.
Reporting: Conducted weekly headcount analysis per business segment for EMEA, and prepared detailed presentations for Board meetings & operational reviews.
Conducted training in Paris & London for country analysts on effective budgeting & planning.
Management Accounting:
• Responsible for maintaining the books of accounts including sales / purchase ledgers, cash book, preparing bank reconciliations and handling customer / supplier queries. Prepared management accounts and carried out month-end variance analysis.