Associate, Debt Team, CDC

Job Title	Associate, Debt Team
Employer	CDC
Job Type	Full Time
Location	London, UK
Industry	Private Equity
Experience	0-3 Years
Languages	English
Deadline	Thursday 10th March 2016

Section One:  Background to CDC
CDC is the UK’s Development Finance Institution (DFI). Wholly owned by the Department for International Development (DFID), CDC plays a key role in DFID’s strategy to reduce poverty in the developing world by supporting economic growth and creating jobs through investing in businesses in Africa and South Asia.

Established in 1948, CDC is the world’s oldest DFI and has a proud heritage supporting the building of successful businesses across emerging and frontier markets.

CDC takes a commercial approach to its investing and lending activities, but, as a DFI, each investment is motivated by the development impact it will achieve.  As it invests from its own balance sheet, CDC has considerable flexibility in how it structures investments and in the risk-return profiles it can consider. It is also able to take a longer view – up to and beyond ten years if necessary.  CDC is currently invested in over 1,300 companies in 74 countries.

In recognition of CDC’s high quality and developmental approach to investing, DFID recently announced a significant new capital injection of £735 million into CDC.  Prior to this, since 1948 the UK Government had invested a net £144 million into CDC, which had been turned into net assets of £3.4 billion.  The new investment will allow CDC to invest on a greater scale in a wider variety of job- sectors and businesses.

CDC invests in a number of ways:

·      making loans and guarantees;
·      making direct equity investments or co-investing in specific businesses, alongside local GPs or like-minded investors;
·      placing capital with expert fund managers (GPs) who then use their local knowledge and expertise to find promising businesses in which to invest.
To achieve its vision and mandate, CDC is looking to consolidate its teams and, in particular, attract high quality investment professionals who are motivated to use their skills to develop the private sector in Africa and South Asia.

For further information, please see our website ()

Section Two:  Role Requirements
Role Purpose

The Associate will support the work of the debt team from the origination to the execution and monitoring of debt transactions across project finance, corporate lending and loans to financial institutions. This will include research and strategy work, the initial assessment of new opportunities, credit analysis, due diligence, and portfolio management activities, as required, as well as liaising with other relevant transaction support teams (Environmental and Social, Business Integrity and Development Impact).

An experienced Associate will be capable of:

·      Analysing new debt propositions, preparing screening and credit proposals, as well as preparing monitoring papers.
·      Completing discrete due diligence tasks such as company, industry and economic analysis.
·      Reviewing legal documentation together with the internal legal team.
Key Responsibilities

Due diligence, credit Analysis and deal execution:
·      Supporting senior members of the team working on new debt proposals.
·      The Associate will be responsible for analysis, including: sector / market analysis; company / borrower analysis (including credit analysis financials and financial modelling); macro-economic analysis.
·      Responsibility for drafting the relevant sections of credit proposals.
·      Over time, the Associate will gain experience in all aspects of credit assessment and due diligence, and will take responsibility for a broader range of due diligence and deal completion related work.
Portfolio management:
·      Supporting role on monitoring the portfolio of existing loans.
·      Responsibilities include, in respect of specific existing loans:  reviewing company reports; monitoring compliance with covenants; flagging any potential credit issues and preparing monitoring papers for review by CDC’s credit committee.
Research and strategy:
·      Contributing to sector/country strategies; collecting market data and other ad-hoc analysis/research activities relevant to CDC’s debt business.
·      Keeping up-to-date with deal-flow, deal management and portfolio monitoring databases for all transactions covered by the debt team.
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Considerations

·      As an employee of CDC, you must be aware of the importance of ESG considerations and support the continued delivery of CDC’s ESG compliance process.
·      As a member of an investment team, you should ensure that CDC’s investments are made to maximize development impact.  You will need to give certain attention and devote time to ensuring that ESG performance of deals are appropriately managed and addressed
·      CDC provides regular ESG training on relevant topics and issues throughout the year which, as a member of the investment team, you will be expected to attend.

Section Three:  Candidate background, Skills & Identities
Candidate background

·      At least two years of relevant experience within an international financial environment, preferably in corporate/investment banking;
·      University degree with Masters in Finance, Economics, Corporate Finance, or accounting degree.  CFA, ACA or MBA would be an additional advantage;
Required competencies

·      Analytical and research skills (including the ability to analyse company reports, sector data, economics and relevant political events);
·      Credit analysis skills and ability to analyse a Company’s financial statements and make commercial assessments;
·      Financial modelling and excel skills;
·      Ability to work on multiple opportunities across products and sectors while working to deadlines and managing time effectively;
·      Good business communication and presentation skills;
·      Evidence of relationship building and ability to develop a network of relevant external contacts, as well as internally across different teams;
·      As a member of a small team, a flexible and “hands on” approach is a prerequisite;
·      Foreign language skills, particularly those spoken in CDC’s geographies (e.g. French, Portuguese etc.) would be an additional advantage;
·      An active interest in investing in developing countries and understanding of emerging market environments, with a willingness to travel;
·      Demonstrable alignment with CDC mandate, mission and values.
Candidate generic values/ traits

Candidates must be strongly motivated by CDC’s proposition. This requires:

·      An awareness of and appreciation for CDC’s objectives;
·      Some evidence of these values is useful (e.g., volunteering, career changes due to changing motivations);
·      An appreciation of CDC’s activities and a passion to be part of CDC’s continued growth;
·      History of working with ‘best in class’ employers in their respective fields;
·      Appropriate periods with each previous employer and explicable career moves;
·      The flexibility and desire to spend time in the countries in which CDC invests;
·      An understanding of the remuneration and its structure, with the trade-offs it requires;
·      Willingness to take time to support colleagues.
CDC Identities

We look for candidates that share our culture and reflect our identity, the CDC identities are described as follows:

·      Compassion is central to everything we do;
·      We owe our clients and prospective clients a fast and thoughtful process;
·      We accept the tough challenges inherent in our mission;
·      We are quick and non-defensive when things go wrong;
·      We oppose bureaucracy;
·      We never forget that we are investing and spending taxpayers’ money; and
·      We promote a fulfilling work environment.
For further information, please see our website ()
Salary package: Competitive salary

Application deadline: 22 March, 2016

About CDC

CDC is the world’s oldest development finance institution and has a proud heritage in supporting the building of successful businesses across poor and emerging markets.  Having had a focused strategy over the past 8 years as an investor (LP) in private equity funds (GPs) in emerging markets, it is going through an exciting transformation that will extend the range of its activities to include direct equity investing and direct lending alongside its fund selection business.  The mission of CDC is to:-

To support the building of businesses and creation of jobs in the world’s poorest countries across Africa and South Asia, making a lasting difference to people’s lives.

CDC takes a wholly commercial approach to its investing and lending activities, but, as a DFI, is ultimately motivated by the development impact of its investing activities. As it invests from its own balance sheet, it has considerable flexibility in how it structures investments and in the risk – return profiles it can consider.   It is also able to take a longer view – up to and beyond 10 years if that is necessary.

CDC is wholly owned by the UK government’s Department for International Development (DFID) and plays a key role in DFID’s strategy to help build a thriving private sector in the developing world.  It is a measure of CDC’s high quality investment processes that despite investing in regions of the world that are typically considered very high risk,  it has received no fresh investment from government since 1995 and has returned a profit (which has been reinvested) of £1.8bn since 2004. 

CDC invests in a number of ways:

- placing capital with expert fund managers (GPs) who then use their local knowledge and expertise to find promising businesses in which to invest;

- making direct investments or co-investing in specific businesses, alongside local GPs or like-minded investors; and

- making loans, guarantees and offering micro-finance support