Each service says what the work is and when it is done. Filter by what you need.
01
Tender pricing and guarantees
Read the contract conditions before the price goes in: penalties, retention, payment terms, escalation, guarantee requirements. Put those costs and risks into the tender price so the job is won at a number that survives execution. Work out what guarantees the contract needs, what they cost, and what facility headroom exists. Negotiate the guarantee facility with the bank or insurer. Read the counter-indemnity before it is signed. Model the cash: retention held, advances, payment lag against the wage bill.
Done when: the tender is submitted at a priced risk, and the guarantees the contract needs are in place.
Standing FD work at two EPC groups. Koeberg steam generator replacement, ZAR 450 million of works, Framatome. Koeberg second backup power supply, ZAR 800 million, Eskom. Main Road 91, Namibia, ZAR 1.2 billion. Atlantis 7 MW solar plant, over ZAR 100 million. BMW Rosslyn rooftop plant, over ZAR 100 million. Dam wall civils for Barrick in the northern DRC, over USD 200 million. Kenmare zinc plant relocation, USD 80 million, Mozambique. Guarantee facilities held as a named stakeholder relationship; cash modelling of major contractual disputes.
02
Foreign company setup
Decide the structure: branch, subsidiary or joint venture, and who owns it. Register the company, the tax numbers, the payroll. Open the bank accounts and get through the KYC. Get the exchange control and central bank approvals on both sides. Set the statutory calendar: what gets filed, where, when. Find and brief the local accountant and auditor so the client is not alone there afterwards.
Done when: the company can trade, bank, employ and file in that country.
Finance run on the ground in the DRC under OHADA, in Zambia, in Namibia inside the Common Monetary Area, in Mozambique including forex registration on a USD 80 million plant relocation, in Mauritius under the GBC regime, and in Australia. A UK subsidiary incorporated. Consolidation across more than six currencies and three accounting frameworks.
03
Moving money across borders
List every flow: dividend, management fee, interest, loan repayment. For each one, work out the withholding tax, check the treaty rate, get the tax clearances and the SARB or central bank approval. Paper the intercompany agreements so both tax authorities accept the flow. Sequence it: what moves first, what it costs, when it lands. Run the first payment through the bank. Leave the client with the file to repeat it.
Done when: the first payment has landed and the file to repeat it is in the client's hands.
SARB exchange control and balance of payments compliance as standing practice for over a decade. Group dividend and intercompany flows run across South Africa, Mauritius, the DRC, Zambia, Namibia and Mozambique. Transfer pricing and double tax agreement application at group level. Treasury risk and intergroup funding reported to the board quarterly.
04
Tax disputes and back taxes
Quantify what is actually owed against what is assessed: tax, penalties, interest, per year, per tax type. Decide the route: object, negotiate, voluntary disclosure, settle. Prepare the returns and reconciliations for the missing years. Sit in the meetings with the authority and negotiate the number and the payment terms. Get the settlement in writing. Set the compliance calendar so it does not happen again.
Done when: the settlement is in writing and the payment terms are agreed.
Eight years of non-compliance in Namibia regularised in person, deal struck with the authority. Complex tax disputes negotiated to favourable resolution in multiple African jurisdictions. TVA recovery in the DRC. Transfer pricing and double tax agreement positions defended. Tax packages prepared for local authorities in every operating jurisdiction.
05
Raising finance
Work out how much, for what, and which instrument fits: term loan, asset finance, project finance, working capital. Build the financial model and the pack lenders lend against. Approach more than one lender so there is competition. Compare the term sheets: rate, security, covenants, fees. Negotiate the security package down and the covenants to levels the business can live with. Push the deal through legals to signing and drawdown.
Done when: the facility is signed and the money is drawn.
More than USD 300 million raised. Over ZAR 4 billion in asset, project and working-capital finance. Led the ZAR 400 million DTI-backed transaction with a South American counterpart. Assisted shareholders to raise USD 30 to 40 million of project finance for agriculture in the DRC. Term sheets, security packages, covenants, escrows and guarantees negotiated across six jurisdictions.
06
Bank applications
Rebuild the financials and forecasts to the standard a credit committee reads. Put together the facility register: what the client has, what it costs, what security is pledged. Write the application and the motivation the banker takes to committee. Prepare the owner for the questions. Sit in the meeting.
Done when: the application is in front of the committee with the owner prepared.
Two decades on the borrowing side of every major South African bank. Five or more banks per region across six jurisdictions. Fifteen-plus DFIs, Afreximbank among them, and export credit agencies. Group treasury custodian responsible for facility structures and covenant compliance.
07
Part-time financial director
Each month: close the books, check the numbers are right, produce the pack, read it with the owner and say what it means. Watch the cash weekly. Manage the bank relationship. Sit in the board meeting. Keep the bookkeeper and accountant honest. Catch problems while they are small.
Done: each month, again next month. Agreed days.
Financial Director, Africa Region, for eleven years across the DRC, Zambia, Namibia, Mozambique, Mauritius and South Africa. CFO with board appointment by resolution. Reported into Japanese, Belgian, German and Swiss head offices. GM of finance, IT, procurement and sales at 28. Teams of 22 to 40. Exco, board and risk committee seats. Public officer appointments.
08
Monthly management accounts
Take the raw ledger, correct it, cut it into what matters: profit by month, margin by job or product, cash position, debtors, creditors. Deliver it by a fixed day each month. One page the owner reads, backed by detail if wanted.
Done: on the fixed day, every month.
Monthly close reduced from 30 days to 7. Debtor days from 60 to 38. Board and shareholder reporting produced at three groups between ZAR 1.5 billion and ZAR 4 billion in revenue. Four ERPs implemented or run: IFS Cloud, Sage X3, SAP, PeopleSoft. The Lesedi implementation delivered under budget, without business disruption, on the CEO's written record.
09
Catching up the books
Gather the bank statements, invoices and payroll records for the missing period. Rebuild the ledger month by month. Reconcile every bank account. Fix the VAT and payroll submissions that were wrong or missing. Produce the annual financials. Hand back a clean set the accountant and SARS accept.
Done when: the books are current and the accountant and SARS accept them.
Appointed CFO at Lesedi after the company had operated without one, with the mandate to stabilise ahead of a growth phase. The CEO's written reference records the department stabilised, financial frameworks rebuilt, and a tier-one cloud ERP migrated without loss of productivity or data.
10
Personal and company tax
Map everything the owner touches: salary, dividends, loan account, the companies, the trusts. Do the returns for all of it together, so the salary decision, the dividend decision and the loan account are set once, not contradicting each other. Keep the provisional payments right so there are no surprises. Watch the loan account before SARS does.
Done: every return filed on time, every year.
Public officer appointments held personally. Full direct and indirect tax oversight as standing FD responsibility: corporate tax, VAT, PAYE, withholding taxes, customs. Salary structuring and employee taxes as named competencies. The same position run first-hand as an owner across multiple entities.
11
Finance review
Go through the whole money side: books, tax status, bank facilities, guarantees, cash, systems, the people doing the work. Test what is actually true, not what the owner is told. Write down what is broken, what it costs, and in what order to fix it. Hand over the list.
Done when: the list is handed over.
Twenty years running the functions under review. CFO of a ZAR 1.5 billion engineering group. Financial Director of a USD 175 million multi-country group. GM Finance of a ZAR 4 billion operation.
