Portfolio Administration Co-ordinator

Job Description

Job title: Portfolio Administration Co-ordinator

Company: British International Investment

Job description: Our mission

• BII is the UK’s development finance institution. Established in 1948 we invest in the most challenging markets of Africa and Asia with the aim of supporting economic development.
• BII has net assets of £6.8bn and a portfolio of £5.2 billion. In 2020 we committed over £1.22 billion of capital to business in Africa and Asia and are now invested in 1,200 businesses which directly employ over 875,000 workers and support many more.
• BII is a Public Limited Company and is wholly owned on behalf of the UK government by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO).
• In the last few years, we have expanded our presence in Africa and Asia by opening new offices in Bangladesh, Egypt, Kenya, Myanmar, Nepal, Nigeria and Pakistan with additional locations opening soon.
• At BII, we take an entrepreneurial approach to investment. We think innovatively about ways to deploy our capital, attract and mobilise other investors, and drive transformational impact.
• Primarily, BII invests through direct equity, direct debt and funds products to achieve impact and a financial return which is reinvested into more businesses. We aim to create jobs and accelerate economic prosperity and focus on sectors that will do this; manufacturing, food and agriculture, infrastructure, financial institutions, construction, health and education.
• BII works with like-minded ambitious people who are primarily motivated by our mission to deliver impact. We are a growing team of over 485 and place immense value on diversity within our organisation.

Read more about us on our website

Team and role overview

BII has recently created a portfolio administration team as part of a new focus on Investment Operations. The team is tasked with:

• Creating and developing a Portfolio Administration function, transferring existing processes from BII’s Investment teams, Finance, Treasury etc
• Improving the Portfolio Administration process to make it more effective and efficient by reviewing existing process and introducing automation and standardisation

Purpose

The Portfolio Administration team is a dedicated group of professionals who ensure that BII’s portfolio of investments is monitored for lifecycle events and administered effectively and efficiently. It ensures transactions are processed in a timely manner and that the data recorded in the portfolio is accurate and can be relied on for critical processes across the firm.

Investments are made in Private Equity Funds, Direct Equity, Direct Debt and Trade and Supply Chain Finance.

The Portfolio Administration team plays a prominent and critical role in maintaining and monitoring BII’s portfolio to ensure lifecycle events are processed effectively.

Responsibilities

• Perform administration duties related to initial investment transactions, e.g. bank account set up, call backs to confirm bank details and setting up the instrument
• Monitor, check and administer ongoing lifecycle events, processing disbursements, distributions for Funds and Equities.
• Where BII has made an investment with partner institutions, verify funding requests and payments calculated by partners.
• Monitor for receipt of periodic reports from investees, analyse and verify data for entry to BII systems, e.g. Audited Financial statements and quarterly Valuations. When necessary, liaise with investees to obtain late reports or query data that did not pass verification.
• Analyse underlying investments in Fund investments and update BII systems.
• Prepare exposure reporting for BII investments.
• Monitor the team inbox, assisting with ad-hoc portfolio queries, analysis and reporting.
• Flag issues with BII investments to the Investment teams and senior management as appropriate.
• Assist in preparing regular reporting and reconciliations

The candidate

Background, skills, aptitude

• Must have suitable previous experience working within a portfolio administration function, or fund accountancy within an Investment environment
• Organised approach to ensure timely follow up on outstanding issues and identify appropriate action to be taken
• Attention to detail ensuring a high degree of accuracy for all deliverables
• Ability to multi-task and balance activities without losing sight of deadlines

Essential skills include:

• Understanding of financial instruments and the administration processes that are required to support them, deal capture, payments, receipts
• Previous experience of any of Private Equity Funds and Direct Equity
• Previous experience working with portfolio administration software packages
• Proficient with Microsoft Office tools, particularly Excel
• Ability to build strong relationships with other functions such as Investment teams, Legal, Finance and Treasury
• Excellent Communication skills to effectively articulate issues to internal and external partners
• Ability to work in a team environment and build strong relationships with colleagues and external contacts

Desirable skills include:

• Part Qualified accountant (ACCA or CIMA)
• IMC / CISI
• Knowledge of Portfolio Management systems, ideally eFront
• Experience of using custody, banking and third-party administrator online portals,

• Candidates should be strongly motivated by BII’s development mission and ideally demonstrate some commitment to development or social goals through previous executive or non-executive activity

Our cultural values

We look for team members who aspire, as we do, to work at our best and to be:

• Impact-led, commercially rigorous
• Tenacious in the face of challenges
• Collaborative and caring

BII is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes all applicants regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation or educational background.

Please provide a cover letter with your application

Salary: Competitive

Expected salary:

Location: London

Job date: Sun, 07 Jan 2024 05:47:19 GMT

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