Investment Officer

tendersglobal.net

Description

IFC — a member of the World Bank Group — is the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. We work in more than 100 countries, using our capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities in developing countries. In fiscal year 2023, IFC committed a record US$43.7 billion to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries, leveraging the power of the private sector to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity as economies grapple with the impacts of global compounding crises. For more information, visit www.ifc.org.

The Manufacturing, Agribusiness & Services (MAS) Industry Group plays an important role in supporting IFC’s strategic priorities, covering investments in the global manufacturing and services, agribusiness, health and education sectors. MAS’ sectors play a critical role in providing goods and services to consumers, addressing core needs, creating jobs, contributing to government revenues and stimulating growth. In IFC’s client countries, these sectors can account for as much as 80% of overall economic activity and can account for up to 90% of employment activity, particularly in the poorest countries.

MAS is seeking an experienced Investment Officer to be based in Singapore to complement its team to cover manufacturing, agribusiness and consumer services sectors primarily for its manufacturing operations. The successful candidate will be a key member of the East Asia Pacific MAS team and will work closely with IFC offices in the region as well as global team to develop new business opportunities, execute transactions as well as manage portfolio investments.

Duties and Accountabilities:
•  Contribute to drafting strategies for sectors, countries, or regions for business development; and develop and execute strategies for more complex client engagements with the objective of building a robust investment or advisory pipeline.
•  Develop long-term relationships and engagement plans with key local clients to identify and act on opportunities for repeat business.
•  Draw comparisons with other industry projects across the region to determine fit with current portfolio and conduct quality control to ensure accuracy and adequacy of analytical work completed by junior staff.
•  Assess and articulate the development impact and IFC additionality of moderately complex transactions at the sector or subsector level. Engage with IFC economics team to build AIMM story including any market creation impact.
•  Gather market intelligence to stay informed of emerging trends in sectors and the country that could have broad impact on a country or subsector portfolio.
•  Lead quarterly assessments of ratings, loan loss reserves, or valuations for country, region, or sector portfolio. Conduct quality control over work performed by analysts and more junior investment officers.
•  Lead structuring of moderately complex investment or advisory transactions incorporating lessons of project evaluations and portfolio management experience. Ensure timely processing, thorough due diligence and client satisfaction.
•  Thoroughly review work provided by clients and prepared by team members to ensure solid structure and consistency of legal documents with agreed upon terms.
•  Maintain relationships with clients and other stakeholders (government, development partners, WBG) who are at a level where they can influentially participate in developing immediate and future business opportunities.
•  Negotiate moderately complex waivers, amendments, and rescheduling, and help prepare official restructuring memos for approval.
•  Participate as part of teams led by senior (GG2/GH) investment officers in putting together sector interventions and client engagement plans for IFC’s strategic and top tier clients.
•  Participate in the design of approaches and interventions to create upstream markets and provide substantive input to key components of Country Private Sector Diagnostics.
•  Perform complex, credit risk rating assessments, covenant compliance reviews, and development impact assessment. Review the quality of portfolio review work performed by more junior staff.
•  Perform assessment of project development impact and articulate realization of AIMM story and market creation impact, if any, for moderately complex transactions.
•  Prepare investment or advisory committee materials focusing on financial and nonfinancial risk assessments and deal structuring in moderately complex transactions, applying knowledge of policy and procedures and assessing exceptions where relevant.
•  Use networks to keep projects moving and collaborate with key internal stakeholders to obtain buy-in on deals and negotiate risk mitigation strategies.
•  Supervise and ensure quality of portfolio reporting information prepared by junior staff and provide further inputs in assessing more complex projects.
•  Engage in discussions with Investment Officers to gather insights for lessons learned on important topics and to identify additional areas where lessons learned could improve business development and transaction structuring.

Selection Criteria

•  Master’s degree in a related field and at least 10-12 years of relevant experience. Related fields of education include business, finance, or economics or an area of expertise specific to a sector, subject matter, or industry specialty.
•  Relevant experience could include a proven track record in business consulting or investment banking, or operational experience in the sector or technical or professional field.
•  Capacity to understand, enable, and participate in market creation opportunities for multiple countries by demonstrating long-term perspective, open-mindedness, persistence, innovation, and ability to leverage all available tools (including de-risking tools); good understanding of the roles and value-add of IFC and WBG in new markets.
•  Understanding of relevant country strategies and obstacles to achieving them.
•  Has a reputation for listening carefully to clients and stakeholders and asking targeted questions to understand their needs and determine the viability of a business opportunity.
•  Build long-term engagement with clients and credibility by demonstrating knowledge of their business, sector, and culture; maintain an ongoing dialogue on their business needs, operations, and strategies as well as opportunities for strategically aligned business deals.
•  Ability to maintain client engagement during portfolio stage to identify growth opportunities, address emerging problems, and focus on actions that promote sustainability and ensure that overall development impact objectives are met.
•  Build and maintain extensive networks in sectors, country, and region to bring new engagements, and business opportunities.
•  IFC/WBG: Ability to interact effectively with working level WBG staff and participate in collaborative interventions or /projects that enable private sector investment by exercising sensitivity to differences in corporate cultures, priorities, and operating practices and /requirements.
•  Public Sector: Ability to participate and constructively contribute in meetings with mid-level government officials on constraints to private sector investment in their countries.
•  Excellent written and verbal communication skill. Ability to describe complex issues, approaches, and lessons in a manner that is relevant and understandable to clients/stakeholders.
•  Ability to comment effectively on documents, develop junior staff as writers, and lead the writing process of business specific documents.
•  Ensure final products are aligned with the needs and expectations of intended audiences.
•  Able to clearly articulate IFC’s requirements, value-add, financial and nonfinancial risks, development impact, and sustainability measurement in a way that is relevant to and understandable by clients and stakeholders.
•  Ability to communicate technical information in an understandable and concise way to a nontechnical audience.
•  Able to orally present and confidently defend a sound rationale for proposed deals in a compelling way that is appropriate to the audience and engenders their support, including by contributing to (and supervising contributions of team members) the preparation of well-written IRM books, board papers, and complex portfolio documentation.
•  Ability to supervise staff in business development, processing, portfolio management, or specialty area by providing technical guidance and delegating work to build and effectively use talents of staff and balance workloads.
•  Ability to guide, advise, mentor, and coach junior staff and peers to develop and broaden their scope of skills, including providing on-the-job learning opportunities. Critical for FCS and other challenging markets.
•  A broad understanding of the economy, sectors, and regulatory and industry fundamentals and drivers, industry and market benchmarks, the latest trends and changes, and industry standards; or market, including policies and regulations affecting investment and business growth.
•  Ability to review the financial analytical work performed by team members for moderately complex transactions based on in-depth analytical and financial modeling skills and experience to know what to look for in efficiently ensuring quality control and directing the appropriate analysis to understand risk factors in a project
•  Build advanced structuring expertise for moderately complex investment or advisory transaction based on experience with diverse IFC financial instruments, a range of clients in different countries, and projects with different complexity factors.
•  Integrate divergent viewpoints of multiple external and internal stakeholders into a coherent project, program, or strategy.
•  Proactively seeks input from peers and leaders to deliver objectives and identify where to eliminate delivery roadblocks.
•  Demonstrated success as a key influencer in bringing integrated solutions to concept review state where there are significant challenges and competing interests.
•  Fluency in English, both verbal and written skills.

World Bank Group Core Competencies

The World Bank Group offers comprehensive benefits, including a retirement plan; medical, life and disability insurance; and paid leave, including parental leave, as well as reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity and inclusive employer with a dedicated and committed workforce, and do not discriminate based on gender, gender identity, religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

Learn more about working at the World Bank and IFC, including our values and inspiring stories.

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