General Manager - Finance
Ghassan Aboud Group
Total years of experience :22 years, 3 Months
General Manager Finance (Hotels & Real Estate) - Reporting directly to Group CFO and Chairman, responsible for Hotels and Real Estate vertical.
o Project Pre-Planning (Feasibility):
Conduct project feasibility studies for executive management decision making
o Management Report (MIS) Review:
Conduct monthly MIS performance reviews
Recommendations to stakeholder’s appropriate financial measures (cost reduction and revenue generating) required to be implemented across all businesses
Submission of monthly management Financial Dashboard
Hotels detailed operational performance review
o Accounting, Auditing & Tax compliance:
Manage the external auditing process for all legal entities
Consolidation of yearly audit process for final group audit and consolidation purpose
Ensure timely VAT and Corporate Tax filing with local authorities
o Budget Preparation and Review:
Consolidation of all required information from business cost centers to prepare all financial reports (Profit and Loss, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statements) to prepare a justification for management budget approval
Review budgets submitted by local finance teams and recommend required changes to facilitate management approval
o Cash Flow Management
Prepare cash flow forecasts for existing or potential business and provide advice on appropriate cash flow management
o Operations Management for Overseas Operations:
Overall planning, administration and management of business processes
Manages the communication between overseas business operations and partners with the group’s stakeholders
o Automation and Implementation of Accounting Systems:
Lead the implementation on Finance and Accounting processes automation across all local and overseas business
o Banking Facilities:
Overall planning, administration and management of banking accounts and manage current business relationship
Review and provide input to SVP - Finance on banking terms and conditions
Secure new facilities and obtain term sheets from various banks to ensure timely project funding.
Ensuring right mix of Debt and Equity Funding for maximum ROE
Group Finance Manager - Reporting directly to CEO and Finance Director, responsible for the below mentioned core areas of finance
Debt and Equity Financing
o Liaise with Banks and investors for various project financing
o Assessing and working closely with various local and international banks for funding upcoming projects or refinancing of existing hotel projects by providing project cash flows to maximize LTV and maintain DSCR levels.
o Negotiating with banks on interest rates margins and effectively keep the cost of debt level at the lowest.
o Company’s IPO (LSE listing-AIM Market) was an achievement in Dec 2013, which involved 8 months of extensive financial due diligence, which released Equity funding for the projects.
Project Feasibilities/Profitability Analysis
o Established and setup core feasibility and hotel returns analysis for various existing and upcoming projects for board review and approvals.
o Analysing new opportunities with a detailed cashflow and profitability workings considering existing and future market trends of occupancy and ADR’s.\
o Analyse new acquisitions and evaluate their assets in terms of business plan.
Business Planning/Forecasting and Budget
o Yearly preparation of annual budgets, working closely with hotel GM’s and FC and operators for hotel budgets. Preparing Operational Budget pack for the CEO and FD for review.
o Leading the annual corporate consolidated Budget of the company for all territories and circulating it for Board approval.
o Preparing 7 years a detailed Business Plan in line with Board expectations and objectives, to anticipate required funding for growth
o Forecasting hotel performance and attending Business review meeting along with Asset Manager
o Detailed Project ratio analysis like IRR, DSCR, ROE, ROCE and various analytics.
Accounting/Auditing and Financial Reporting
o Reviewing Actuals with accounting team.
o Ensuring that accounting is in line with IFRS requirements.
o Reviewing monthly consolidated and entity level financials with FD
o Handling half yearly reviews and yearly statutory audits with company auditors (PWC and Deloitte)
o Prepare operational KPIs, MIS, and budget-vs.-actual variance analyses.
o Provide reports of operational assets and ADR, occupancy %, Rev Par, and GOP.
o Enforce consistent USALI accounting across entire six-nation region
o Assess present business level and anticipated performance versus target.
o Ensuring Tax compliance across each countries with various tax advisors
Risk Management and Controls
o Ensure various Property All Risks and Business Interruption Insurances are in place for all properties
o Initiated and added Political Violence cover to all the properties, considering the current market situation
o Have streamlined insurance policies across hotel and have negotiated umbrella cover premiums for cost savings.
o Have place internal controls across hotel finance departments to ensure proper cash management
Agility is one of the world’s leading providers of integrated logistics with more than 25, 000 employees in over 550 offices and 100 countries.
On tenure of almost 7 years I have seen a growth from Accountant to Assistant Manager Finance. I am highlighting the responsibilities below for the last position held with the company.
Assistant Accounting Manager working on a prestigious Prime Vendor (PV) project in Agility DGS by feeding the US Military forces in Kuwait, Iraq, Qatar and Afghanistan with various US and Local food products.
• Successfully closed all the modules in financials by 5th of every month.
• Provided Management with Gross Margin on 2nd and Net Profit by 5th of every month.
• Provided the management with Budget vs Actual towards Overheads after closing books monthly.
• Preparation of monthly Income Statement (P&L), Cash Flow Statement, CAPEX report and Balance Sheet by 6th of every month with explanations towards variances against Year to Date (YTD) and Period to Date (PTD) Budget and Previous Years figures.
• Reported management with Revenue and Cost analysis spreadsheet with Margin analysis in order to watch consistency in Margins.
• Responsible to prepare yearly budget sheet with all the detailed analysis forecasting sales, cost and overheads that will take place in different scenarios.
• Monthly responsibility towards funding accounts with improper budget issues.
• Reviewing Monthly Inter Co. Reports for variances, Bank Reconciliations and Other G&A Expenses report.
• Solely responsible to handle issues and requirements from External and Internal Auditors.
• Reporting directly to Finance Director and Vice President for selected reports.
Accountant working with Payables team using Tally ees6.3 and MS Excel. I maintain trade accounts with German companies like Baur and Schwab and also UK companies like Freemans. Following up on customs clearance is an added responsibility.
Junior Accountant working with Tally ees6.3, Excel worksheets and Microsoft Access to support me through my Masters program.
Certified Financial Modeling (CFM) Masterclass is a highly interactive course designed to teach a practical understanding of effective financial modeling. The course covers 20 major subject areas and utilities a variety of training techniques. Through real-life case studies, the emphasis will be on practical and pragmatic approaches. The course has been designed to strengthen model structuring skills. By adopting a structured design strategy, better models can be developed in less time and with greater accuracy thus streamlining processes, enabling sound decision and increasing profits!
CMA Certification of attendance for all the four parts as per the old syllabus.
Completed Certification in International Financial Reporting which will help my decision making towards correct reporting to the management.
ط Business Management. ط Human Resource Management – Detailed analysis of Human behaviour in the organization and study of communication techniques between supervisors and subordinates.
ط Business Management. ط Human Resource Management – Detailed analysis of Human behaviour in the organization and study of communication techniques between supervisors and subordinates.
Major Subjects: ط Financial Accounting ط Cost Accounting ط Management Accounting ط Taxation