Financial Controller
ACWA Power International
Total years of experience :21 years, 11 Months
A large and rapidly growing international group that is developer, investor, co-owner and operator of plants with a generation portfolio of 23 GW of power and 2.5 million m3/day of desalinated water with an investment value in excess of USD 32 billion.
Currently working as Financial Controller
Oman operations consist of 7 companies (including offshore entities) in power generations, operation and maintenance businesses including 1 large listed company with annual turnover exceeding USD 200 Million.
Responsibilities include:
• Leading the planning & budgeting function of the company. It involves financial modelling, forecasting, dash board presentations, financial analyses and cash flow projections. Includes deliverables to shareholders, BOD, lenders and leadership for effective business decisions making.
• Managing treasury / financing functions of the company. It includes lenders management, compliance with financing agreements, arranging lenders consents, project draw downs, working capital management, project deliverables submissions, debt repayments, refinancing and risk management.
• Leading tax function of the group including tax assessments, handling tax cases at various Courts of law through legal / tax advisors, tax compliance, international taxation, statutory tax filings including withholding taxes, transfer pricing etc.
• Leading financial reporting function of the group in accordance with local statute and IFRS to deliver timely and accurate financial information. It includes regional and global reporting along with reporting to local regulators including stock markets.
• Supporting CFO / management in commercial arrangements / deals with special focus on contractual arrangements with various stakeholders including offtaker, operator, lenders, EPC contractors, regulators etc.
• Handling Insurance function of the company. It involves dealing with Insurance broker (Marsh) to arrange adequate covers for assets, business interruption, third party, sabotage & terrorism etc. at optimum levels. Successfully concluding various insurance risk surveys by broker / lead insurers and insurance claims. Handling lenders requirements with respect to insurance.
• Leading ERP implementation in the group companies. All group entities moved from legacy system to Oracle in all financial modules including GL, AP, AR, Assets, cash management. Ensured there are no reconciling items / pending matters during the transfer.
Engro Eximp Group is part of overall Engro Group. Engro Group is a large business conglomerate with an annual turnover of 1.5 Billion USD, dealing in chemical fertilizers, PVC resin, bulk liquid chemical terminal, industrial automation, foods, power generation and commodity trade. It has production capacities of over 3 Million tons / annum, a manpower of over 15000 and market capitalization of over 1 Billion USD.
Senior Manager (Financial reporting and tax)
Engro Eximp is a group of 3 companies within over all Engro Group, dealing in international trade of commodities (fertilizer, rice, sugar, palm oil, coal) and having the largest rice processing facility (capacity of over 200, 000 tons) in the country along with having an offshore trading company incorporated in UAE. Annual consolidated turnover is over 330 Million USD and a manpower of over 1, 000.
Responsibilities included:
• Managing financial reporting function of the group in accordance with local statute and IFRS to deliver timely and accurate financial information for effective business decision making.
• Managing taxation of the group including tax planning of various businesses of the group and their consolidation, managing filing / submission of various statements / returns as per local and international tax laws.
• Taking lead in systems development cycle to effectively capture financial information and integrate them into a well knitted business cycle.
Engro Foods is part of overall Engro Group, dealing in processing of dairy milk, juices, ice cream, frozen desserts with an annual turnover of 400 Million USD, market capitalization of over 750 Million USD, a manpower of over 5000 and a production capacity of over 500, 000 tons. It also operates the biggest dairy farm in the country.
1. Senior Manager (Finance and Treasury) (October 2012 to November 2013)
Responsibilities included:
• Arranging finance for the company through syndicated facilities, consortium financing, commercial papers, term finance certificates and Islamic financing (Long term portfolio worth USD 80 Million and short term portfolio worth USD 40 Million). The tasks performed include supervising and reviewing cash flows of the company, analysing financial needs of the company, identifying various financing alternatives, negotiating deals with banks, supervising and finalization of financing documents, liaising with legal counsels, co-ordinating with rating agencies, preparing and delivering presentations to the financial institutions and rating agencies.
• Cash flow planning.
• Supervising treasury functions of the company including funds management, cash management and funds placement (Investment management of a portfolio worth USD 30 Million.
• Risk management of company’s exposure against currency and interest rate risks (Forex exposure worth USD 100 Million and interest rate exposure worth USD 15 Million). Task performed include analysis and execution of various risk hedging techniques including cross currency swaps, interest rate swaps, forwards and options.
• Consolidating budgeting and planning cycle.
• Supervising Letter of Credit (LCs) establishment function.
• Supervising insurance function of the company by ensuring that all assets and risks are properly insured with well managed premium costs (Total sum insured of USD 1 Billion). Insurances covered include comprehensive machinery insurance, marine insurance, fidelity insurance, terrorism insurance, business interruption insurance, live-stock insurance, crop insurance, cash insurance, stock insurance etc.)
• Working with top international insurance experts (Marsh International and AON international) on striking a balance in insurance coverage, risk appetite and costs.
Achievements include;
• Reduced annual finance cost by 6% through re-pricing and arranging new cheaper financing, implementing faster cash collection, ensuring zero funds in transit and eliminating zero return funds.
• Reduced annual insurance cost by 5% through detailed study, benchmarking and external reviews of insurance program by eliminating double insurances.
• Updated Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) dash board by engaging AON international.
Responsibilities included:
• Managing timely, effective and accurate financial reporting of all contours of the business.
• Leading financial planning function of the company.
• Development of business wide Dashboard and effective monitoring of KPIs.
• Partnering with business operations and advising business head (annual business size USD 100 Million) on key decisions.
• Ensuring effective control environment is in place and operating.
• Leading the IT function of the business covering IT applications, ERP, networking and systems development.
• Leading a large team of over 80 people from finance, accounting and IT functions, spread across multiple locations.
• Managing payables function of the business responsible for paying suppliers of milk (one of the highest number of supplier base spread over ten thousand and spread over a thousand locations) across the country along with payments for logistics, operating costs, staff costs etc.
Achievements include;
• Implementation of international award winning IT based solution using Point of sale (POS) devices to capture milk purchase operations. The solution comprised of over 1000+ POS terminals using wireless connectivity, back office host and integrated payables module. Whole purchase and payment cycle including reporting of milk purchase operations was successfully carried out through this solution. This resulted in loss reduction by 25% and also cost control of up to 20%
• Implementation of Cash management solutions based on IT infrastructure to execute timely and accurate payments to thousands of suppliers based in mostly rural parts of the country. This resulted in cost savings in financial charges to the extent of 15%, reducing turnaround time by 24 hours and reducing rejected payments by 95%.
• Successfully developed a quality team of accountants that helped streamline the operations and improving efficiencies.
Pakarab Fertilizers is the largest fertilizers complex in the country having an annual turnover of 200 Million USD, manpower of over 2000 and production capacities of over 700, 000 tons / annum.
Worked as Manager Finance.
Responsibilities included:
• Working with financial institutions to arrange finance for the company both in the international and local markets through international bond issue, bridge financing, offshore financing, local Term Finance Certificates, Commercial papers, project financing and syndicated financing. The tasks performed include finalization of agreements, liaising with local and international legal counsels, co-ordinating with local and international rating agencies, preparing and delivering presentations to the financial institutions and rating agencies and co-ordinating with regulatory authorities.
• Financial analyses, projected cash flows, financial models, financial feasibilities, financial planning and budgeting.
• Supervising treasury functions of the company.
• Risk management of company’s exposure against currency and interest rate risks. Task performed include analysis and execution of various risk hedging techniques including cross currency swaps, forwards and options.
• Review and finalization of financing agreements, agreements with suppliers of capital equipment and Clean Development Mechanism projects.
Achievements included:
• Successfully arranging an offshore bridge finance facility for USD 100 Million.
• Getting company rated from international rating agencies (Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s) and working on a project to launch international bond to raise long term funds.
• Successfully arranging various long and short term financing deals within stipulated timelines.
• Successfully arranging an offshore project finance for Euros 20 Million.
Audit and Business Advisory Services (ABAS)
• Have extensive experience in performing statutory audits, limited reviews and ancillary services to various local and multinational clients both from manufacturing and services sectors.
• Responsibilities included planning, coordination, execution and supervision of these assignments.
• Carried out audit planning, evaluation of internal controls, compliance with local laws and regulations and International Standards on Auditing.
• Preparation and compilation of financial statements in accordance with the reporting framework comprising of International Financial Reporting Standards, International Accounting Standards and Companies Ordinance, 1984.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Consultancy
Have worked as member of the team responsible for implementing Oracle Financials at Kohinoor Maple Leaf Group, one of the largest textile groups in the country having composite units spread throughout the country. Have work experience in the following Oracle Modules:
• Oracle Payables
• Oracle Receivables
• Oracle General Ledger
Responsibilities included:
• Mapping of the existing business processes to the Oracle.
• Preparation of Functional Design Document and configuration of Oracle suite.
• Reconciliation of the existing systems with Oracle Financials.
• Post-implementation reviews and User training
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