Aditya Birla Financial Services - Relationship Manager - Corporate Finance Group

Job Title : Relationship Manager - Corporate Finance Group

Function : Corporate Finance Group

Department : Corporate Finance Group

Reporting To : Head - CFG

Superior's Superior : CEO - ABFL

Unit : Aditya Birla Finance Limited

Location : Mumbai/ PUNE

Job Context & Major Challenges :

- As the debt arm of Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG), Aditya Birla Finance Limited (ABFL) offers specialized lending and financing solutions in the areas of Capital Markets, Corporate/ Trade Finance, Commercial Real Estate and Mortgages. Currently ranked within the top 25 NBFCs of India, we have made significant progress and our balance sheet at INR 15,000 Cr plus exceeds that of several mid-sized Banks and NBFCs.

- A well established brand and top 3 player in the Capital Markets space, today our product suite comprises of a well-diversified look, with equal weightage and focus given to the 3 lines of business. Having seen a y.o.y cumulative growth of 50% in both top-line and bottom line, sustainable profitability continues to be the key management agenda.

- The company has a well-defined vision of being one of the most reputed and material financiers within the lending space - spread across both retail HNI and corporate clientele.

- We have made significant investments in our process and system infrastructure towards preparing for the next level of growth and are one of the only financial entities certified for ISO 9001:2008 across all our business processes. Spread across 18 cities, we plan on further diversifying our risk and revenue mix through expansion into new geographies and new product segments allowing our customers a one-window shop for all their financing needs.

- The Corporate Finance vertical specializes in funding all kinds of Indian business legal entities (private limited, public limited, proprietorships etc.) across the value chain ranging from Small businesses of turnover less than INR 50 Cr to Large Corporates with turnovers greater than INR 800 Cr; albeit with a focus on the Small and Medium Enterprises segment.

- The Corporate Finance vertical offers a wide gamut of products which vary in tenor from as short as 45 days to long term lending of 5-7 years. The product suite includes Term Finance, Working Capital Finance, Supply Chain Finance and various kinds of Bill Discounting Facilities. Further, post entering into a Trade Partnership with one of India's leading private banks, the Corporate Finance vertical became one of the first Non-Banks to offer its customer's access to a platform of non-fund based solutions like Letter of Credit and Buyers Credit.

- The fact that the Vertical is sector agnostic and coupled with the dependence on the cash flows of its borrowers for recovering its dues requires all its personnel to have a very high credit appraisal skill set.

- Despite the Corporate Finance industry being materially large in size, given the ultra-high competition in this field from other financial institutions including banks who have greater access to cheaper funds translates into the sales personnel being required to have superior sourcing and negotiation skills.

- Additionally, the treadmill rolling nature of a sizeable portion of its business (short term repayments), the business requires hi-energy constant go-getters with deep relationships and market knowledge. Given ABFL's ambitious growth plans and CFG's criticality to them, it is expected to play a pivotal role in leading ABFL's top-line growth.

Job Context :

Key Aspects :

- The Corporate Finance Group (CFG) is engaged in funding short term, medium term and long term working capital needs of SMEs, Small Businesses & large Corporates via a suite of customized short and long tenured products.

- While unit of sizing up the business is its loan book size, profitability and zero tolerance on delinquency are key business objectives

- Higher Cost of funding impacts profitability as well as competitiveness of loan rates that can be offered to customers

- Strong understanding of business finance, loan structuring methods and credit administration key to building credibility with customers and gaining competitive advantage

- Understanding of local regional market characteristics such as region specific occupations/trade, local financial and investment preferences and practices important to gain competitive advantage while structuring loans and identifying leads.

Key Challenges :

- To constantly upgrade financial know how on loan structuring methods and business financials in order to build credibility with customers

- To keep abreast with the latest market trends and local market preferences and needs

- To ensure conversion percentages are high despite the high cost of funding and higher loan rates

- To create and present a differentiated value proposition to present to customers during sales pitches

- To ensure credit quality and carry out effective portfolio selection and pre screening to ensure minimum NPAs

- To ensure complete safety of financed amount through post sanction surveillance by maintaining strong client relationships and monitoring collaterals

- To keep an eye on unusual spikes/ number movements and investigate their nature for suitable action if required

- To build meaningful and long term partnerships with customers

- To ensure compliant sales operations despite sales pressures and market cycles

Principal Accountabilities :

Sales Operations, Targets & Profitability :

- Segments customers, assesses customer needs, determines the size and potential fitment of a customer and pursues a sales opportunity in accordance with risk and business guidelines

- Identifies leads and develops a network to generate business across the LC segment

- Aligns actions to business plans for the region to ensure achievement of sales targets, fee income and collections through a planned approach and regular monitoring of sales conversions, loan sanctions and utilization percentages

- Sources higher fee based businesses and maintains a balanced portfolio of product margins

Performs pre & post sanction activities like :

- Coordinating for execution of documentation & sanction of loan proposals with the credit risk team

- Coordinating for disbursements or any subsequent deviations during the credit life cycle with the operations team

- Coordinates with market intermediaries like banks & distributors for smooth operations

- Ensures compliant sales operations and faithful representation of organization procedures.

- Manages collections and delinquencies at regional level.

Client Acquisition :

- Increases the number of touch points with clients to ensure engagement and preemptive servicing

- Builds the client base through effective lead generation and management, cross selling initiatives & enables brand differentiation through faster TAT.

- Develops business by building long term relationships.

- Guides the product teams in researching and conceptualizing innovative product/service mix to suit different customer segments

- Drives increase in the fee based income activities, including cross-selling initiatives.

Client Servicing & Engagement :

- Maintains client servicing and client engagement parameters to enhance market credibility and to deliver a superior value proposition compared to competitors

- Suggests industry and vertical specific product and service propositions in order to drive greater customer satisfaction

- Maintains TATs and quality of customer servicing metrics.

- Carries out specific initiatives to ensure retention of existing clients

- Keeps abreast with client requirements and monitors the relationship from initiation to closure

- Ensures that client commitments are kept and their grievances are adequately addressed or highlighted in a timely and responsive manner

Internal Compliance, MIS & Reporting :

- Provides MIS inputs in terms of business volumes, profits, NPA, new clients for Line of Business level metrics and dashboards

- Ensures adherence to all internal compliance guidelines for sales operations

- Extends all necessary support for audit related actions/ investigations and address observations if any in a swift and compliant manner

Risk Identification and Management :

- Supports the risk team through ensuring that credit lending norms & key risk parameters are identified and mitigated/ adhered to

- Engages with all relevant risk/ compliance and senior internal stakeholders for proposal evaluation and pricing decisions