Vacancies at British International Investment

Role overview

The Business Integrity Associate’s primary role will be to work alongside SMART (Services, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Real Estate and Technology) and Infrastructure and Climate (I&C) team colleagues to evaluate integrity risk throughout the lifecycle of an investment, from origination until exit, and implement BII’s Policy on Responsible Investing.

This will involve proactively identifying and assessing integrity risks, developing risk mitigation plans, and supporting responses to issues or incidents if they occur. It will also involve engaging with investees to understand their approach to managing integrity risks and supporting them to build capacity and improve risk management practices over time. The role will focus primarily on East and Southern Africa but will also work across the rest of Africa.

Core responsibilities

• Lead integrity due diligence on SMART and I&C pipeline investments, engaging with external consultants and advisors where required, and providing written and oral analysis on business integrity risks and value-add opportunities to investment teams and senior management
• Monitor integrity risks in designated parts of the portfolio (notably in East and Southern Africa), and work collaboratively with investees to build their capacity to manage integrity risks
• Conduct country and sector specific research to identify integrity risks that may impact BII’s pipeline and portfolio, notably in East and Southern Africa
• Support the strengthening of BII’s approach to identifying, assessing and mitigating risks in the pipeline and portfolio, including by developing new approaches to mitigating risk
• Support the BI team with information management and record-keeping
• Engage with other teams, including the Office of the Chief Investment Officer, Environmental and Social, Development Impact, Risk, and Compliance teams, on firm or investment-related iniaitives, and, as required, to meet BII regulatory and reporting requirements

The candidate

Essential  

• Experience identifying, assessing, and developing controls to mitigate integrity risks in BII’s target geographies in Africa
• Experience conducting integrity risk focused research and assessments, both remotely and onsite
• Knowledge of international best practice related to integrity risk management
• Sound research and analytical skills
• University degree and preferably a postgraduate degree in a relevant discipline
• In-depth knowledge of BII’s target geographies and/or priority sectors of investment

Desirable / Technical Skills

• In-depth knowledge of controls and strategies to manage material risks related to governance, corruption, fraud and/or AML/CTF
• Experience managing corruption, fraud and other related risk issues; evaluating and developing integrity risk management systems; contributing to investigations of integrity risk-related matters; and/or developing governance and anti-bribery and corruption solutions in line with international best practice
• Experience working with financial institutions/DFIs/organisations working in the same environment as BII
• Experience assessing risks relevant to the infrastructure sector or one of the designated SMART sectors
• Competency in one or more languages relevant to BII’s target geographies

Personal Skills

• Systematic approach to work with a keen attention to detail
• Proactive and clear ability to look and plan ahead
• Demonstrated ability to independently manage and prioritise a busy and diverse workload with a range of deliverables for a variety of stakeholders
• Confident and articulate, with excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong team player who enjoys working as part of a close team and is willing to collaborate and support on a variety of different initiatives and tasks
• Demonstrable alignment with BII’s mandate, mission and values.

Closing date: 22 June 2022

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Responsibilities

There are 5 levels in the team – Associate, Executive, Manager, Director, and Team Head. The team is flat and people at all levels are involved hands on and in real detail, and in representational work, both to Investment Committee and externally.

There are 3 parts to the job (at all levels):

• Origination – sector mapping, finding & evaluating investment opportunities, and building and maintaining relationships with companies.
• Execution – analysing companies in detail, conducting due diligence, navigating the Investment Committee process, agreeing legal terms.
• Portfolio management – analysing companies in detail, preparing for Board meetings, helping the companies wherever we can, preparing for follow-on investments, roll-ups and/or exits.

As an Investment Manager, you will be a core member of the Team in building our consumers & industrials African portfolio. You will spend a majority of your time sourcing unique opportunities across Eastern Africa that align to our strategy (whilst looking at the wider SSA markets), meeting and maintaining relationships with stakeholders on the ground, managing and executing multiple deals. The role will also involve active portfolio management of the investments the team makes in the region.

We are looking to add an exceptional individual to our Team with excellent interpersonal skills, with high adaptability & ability to collaborate with highly driven and motivated colleagues. A core part of the role requires assisting the Team in developing our insight and knowledge of key sectors we cover within these markets. Where required, you will help facilitate introductions to the Team and help advance the Team’s pipeline.

The role will also require an ability to maintain strong relationships with functional and product teams across BII such as corporate debt, ESG, development impact etc based out of London.

 The candidate

Background, skills, aptitude

• Suitable relevant experience in finance / corporate finance, investment advisory from either a Private Equity or Investment Banking background; or else corporate development within industry or equivalent role. This must include a professional track record in private equity and investing
• Proven deal track record especially in end-to-end deal management and leading relevant workstreams (due diligence, valuation, legal drafting, internal investment committee process etc)
• Highly desirable if can demonstrate experience in portfolio management including involvement in the boards of portfolio companies, portfolio coaching, monitoring and reporting
• Experience in investing in companies in African markets highly valued, especially if experience is Kenya or the region
• Previous deal experience in manufacturing & consumer investments desirable but not necessary
• A genuine interest and appreciation of criticality and relevance of sustainability and development impact within the investing mandate
• Strong origination capacity of proprietary investments
• Have existing strong local & regional network with banks, financial institutions, fund managers and investors, strategic corporate investors, companies and entrepreneurs etc
• Excellent commercial judgement and financial analysis skills, including rigorous quantitative and deal structuring skills with strong mastery of financial & operational modelling
• The individual must possess the following characteristics:
  • Highly fluent in English
  • Exceptional attitude and excellent communication (written and verbal) skills.
  • Flexible with frequent travelling
  • Be inquisitive, tenacious, and highly driven
  • To be self-motivated and work independently
  • Have exceptional interpersonal skills and be a great team player
  • Ability to build and maintain relationships & network
  • Very good commercial acumen and intuition
  • Creative and solution-finder – our markets are complex and coupled with our impact mission requires sometimes thinking out of the box
  • A passion for emerging markets especially Africa
  • Multi-tasking and be able to work on several deals / projects
• MBA not required
• 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.

Closing date: 28 June 2022