L.P. SOORAJ
Contact: +973-37134459
E-Mail: soorajpadmanabhan74@gmail.com
SENIOR FINANCE PROFESSIONAL ROLE : GROUP FINANCE MANAGER/GROUP FINANCE DIRECTOR
Strategist, planner & achiever with GCC experience in spearheading end-to-end Financial Operations, Accounts, Audit, Cash Flow Management, Treasury, Banking Facilities, Budgeting and Taxation with consistent record of meeting and delivering management and audit deadlines heading a team of Accounts and Finance Professionals.
________________________________________Preferred Location: GULF COUNTRIES(UAE, QATAR, SAUDI, OMAN, BAHRAIN)
Preferred Industry: Construction / Manufacturing /Automotive/ Real Estate/Trading
PROFILE SUMMARY
• Strategic leader in Finance and Accounting with nearly 21 years of post qualification experience (15 yrs in UAE, 2 yrs in Bahrain of which 12 plus years as Finance & Accounting Manager in diverse industries like Manufacturing, Construction, Automotive, Real Estate and Trading) working in multi-cultural organization with diverse roles distinguished by commended performance in spearheading complete financial operations including audit functions with experience in annual budgeting & forecasting, financial planning & analysis, end-to-end business financial process system implementation
• Experienced in providing Business Advisory Functions and regulatory reporting processes.
• Recognized for driving organizational vision, risk identification & mitigation strategies, communicating the goals and visions to the team members and achieving the same through collaborative team work
• Streamlined the financial reporting processes, implemented inbuilt controls & reduced books of account closing time
• Identifying areas of weaknesses in the business controls, accounting and financial function, Costing, increase cost saving & ultimately bottom line.
• Involved in Business set up process, studying new business possibilities, risk analysis.
• An effective communicator with focus on relationship building & interpersonal skills.
• Reporting to the General Managers, Group General Managers, Resident Directors, Commercial Managers, Dy CEO, CEO, Board of Directors, Deputy Chairman and Chairman during the span of last 2 decades.
• Worked under GCC ,Japanese, Korean, European and Indian Management with diverse working culture and reporting requirements.
KEY SKILLS
~ Financial Management ~ Budgeting & Cash Flow Projections ~ Business Strategy & Execution
~ Accounting ~ Banking & Treasury Management ~ Working Capital Management
~ Risk Management & Compliance ~ Cost control & Profit Maximization ~ New business Set Up
~ Driving operations to maximise results ~ Joint Ventures ~ Oracle ERP working knowledge and implementation
EDUCATION
• 1999: FCMA degree holder from Institute of Cost Accountants of India. (First attempt Passed)
• 1996: CA(Intermediate) completed from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India(First attempt Passed)
• 1996: B.Com(Hons). from South City College, Calcutta University, India
WORK EXPERIENCE – BAHRAIN(GCC)
Nass Group of Companies Nov’18- till date
Finance and Accounting Manager of the following Business Units: (2 yr Contract)
Nass Industrial and Nass Mechanical Services, Bahrain
Nass Ice Plant, Bahrain
Nass Sand Processing Plant, Bahrain
Abdulla Nass and Sons, Saudi Arabia
WORK EXPERIENCE – UNITED ARAB EMIRATES(GCC)
Lootah Industries Group Nov’13 – Jul’18
Finance Manager of the following Business Units: (4 yrs 9 months)
Furniture, Bitumen, Steel(Cut & Bend, Wire mesh), Steel(Fabrication), Profile, Aluminium,
Glass, Marble, Expandable Polysterne, Electrical Energy & Powder Coating
Young HWA (RAK) Steel Co. FZ LLC Mar’10 – Oct’13
Finance Manager – Structural Steel Fabrication (3 yrs 8 months)
(Joint Venture group Mitsui, Japan and Young HWA,Korea)
Kapico Group of Companies, Dubai- Automotive Jul’03 – Mar’10
(Part of Al Ghannam Group in Kuwait) (6 yrs 9 months)
Growth Path
Jul’03 – Dec’03 : Accounts Executive
Jan’04’ – Jun’06: Accounts Manager
Jul’06 – ’May’08: Assistant Manager - Finance & Accounts
Jun’08 – Mar’10 : Manager - Finance & Accounts
Roles and Responsibilities:
• Providing leadership, strategic consultation & guidance on financial issues affecting the company
• Formulating, Reviewing and implementing policies, procedures and internal control systems for effective financial operations of the company
• Undertaking ad-hoc audit of finance areas in business.
• Finalizing Finance Statement of Accounts Reporting (monthly, quarterly and annual closing)
• Preparing annual budget;monitoring variances and reporting the same to strategize corrective actions.
• Quarterly Audit Committee Meeting
• Suggesting management on opportunities in business
• Raising funds for projects by arranging short & long-term borrowings; liaising with bankers for setting borrowing limits & interest rates.
• Review legal contracts of companies with customers, suppliers, lawyer contracts, machinery contracts.
• Tracking inflow / outflow of funds; ensuring optimum utilization of funds to meet Working Capital Requirements.
• Excise, Service Tax & Income Tax in India and VAT in UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Zakat maintaining compliance with TAX requirements
• Playing a key role in:
o Aligning the finance, advising owners on business divisions performance and identifying shortcomings with recommendations.
o Conducting financial analysis, reconciliation, daily flash reports on treasury and various analytical reports monthly, GAP analysis.
• Accounting & reporting standards as applicable in IFRS and ensuring necessary changes are brought in place as and when required ensuring timely completion of statutory audits in line with advices from KPMG,E&Y,PWC, Deloitte and BDO.
• Rendering functional guidance through policies and circulars to ensure standardization of finance & accounts practices across the organization
• To maintain healthy relationships with banks, insurance companies, vendors, external auditors suppliers and sub – contractors.
Significant Roles and Resposibilities:
At Nass Group of Companies, Bahrain
• Improved monthly reporting deadlines with all round co-ordination with various departments like inventory, procurement, projects, estimation and operations
• Managing a team of 4 accountants
• Improved monthly and quarterly reporting formats by incorporating various spreadsheets on comparative with budget, comparative with last year, expected forecast, revenue composition(cash sales, credit sales, group companies), inventory analysis, ageing of receivables, payables, cash flow forecast.
• Timely reporting and intimation to management in areas of project losses, drop in margins to enable management to take corrective actions.
• Highlighting to management of non-collection of receivables for over past few years and taking corrective actions either to write off or identifying potential collection and recovery possibilities through Contracts, Projects, Credit Control and operational team enabling partial recoveries in some old cases.
• Long group company receivables, group company payables and external supplier liabilities reduced by proper cash flow management
• New banking facilities for projects.
• Optimum usage of Oracle EBS in terms of report developments with ERP team to minimise manual interventions in various financial reports.
• Business Plan Projections and Monthly Variance Analysis
• Quarterly KPMG audit requirements and yearly BDO Internal audit requirements with no deviations in deadlines of reporting
• Reporting to General Manager, Group General Manager, Commercial Manager and Directors of the Group.
At Lootah Industries Group, UAE
• Spearheading a team of 8 General/Production Managers, 8 Accountants, 1 Chief Accountant and 1 Accounts Manager.
• Preparing and presenting the Business Plan with GM, Production managers and reporting the monthly Actuals Vs Budget Variance to CEO/Chairman and taking necessary corrective actions to drive the organization to improve the overall performance.
• Arranged facility with various banks in GCC & UAE like Gulf International Bank, Doha Bank, Arab Bank, Dubai Islamic Bank, ADCB at competitive pricing factor. Managing the banking facility both at the industry level and group level.
• Established:
o Policies on Petty Cash expenditure, supplier payments, collection meetings, invoicing, accounts and finance department, security gate, inventory counts, expense approval matrix, ERP Oracle LPO/Invoice approval matrix.
• Attended project meetings with clients like Damac, Emmar and other contractors along with GM’s, Production Managers and Engineers
• Re-organized Credit Terms with suppliers to improve cash flow.
• Play a key role in:
o Implementing the Oracle EBS R 12 (SO, AR, AP, CM, IC, OM, Inventory) from the earlier software Orion along with a strong ERP team.
o Formulating reports for development through ERP team.
o Joint Ventures in Djibouti,Africa, UAE, India follow up on receivables
o Involved in setting up operations.
o Undertaken trips to South Korea along with GM to make a Tri-partite legal contract for procuring a new machinery line ( Continious Sandwitch Panel Machine line).
• Interfaced across the group verticals and horizontals with Accounts Managers, Finance Managers exceeding 40 companies both in UAE and Africa for Group consolidation audit constituting Real Estate, Construction, Trading and Manufacturing
• Spearheading implementation of VAT along with a strong internal Finance and ERP team from 01st Jan 2018
• Coordinated with auditors like KPMG, Baker Tilly in individual and consolidation audit in UAE and local auditors in India and Africa(HLG).
• Evaluated proposals on new business viability(SWOT Analysis) ranging from Agriculture, Aircraft, Advertising, Steel Plants, Petroleum, and reporting to Chairman
At Young HWA (RAK) Steel Co. UAE
• Accomplished MIS reporting and Auditing functions keeping in view the overall consolidation deadlines. Brought down quarterly delayed reporting to monthly reporting by 15th of every month for the preceeding month.
• Restructured Credit Terms with suppliers to improve cash flow without impacting the price
• Successfully reduced the cost of utilites(From Genset to Power) by 40% and the initial investment was recovered through savings in about 1 year and 3 months time. This idea was appreciated by Vice President of Mitsui, Japan Mr. Hideki Jindo who was the representative in the joint venture business with Young hwa RAk Steel, Korea
• Arranging Term Loan from Gulf Finance Corporation, UAE
At Kapico Group of Companies,UAE
• Managing a team of 6 accountants to complete the Financial reporting for Auto World, Auto Zone, Parts House, Auto 1 Tyres, Pastamania, V.Kool Emirates in UAE
• AR & Inventory Ageing reporting bi-monthly to minimize to overall exposure in the market, improving collections, identying stocks non-moving and slow moving to help management to liquidate the same thereby improving cash flows.
• Handling Ernst & Young audit for 2 years and local auditors for the balance 4 years. Completion of UAE audit in time to enable consolidation audit in Kuwait(Head Office)
• Working Capital funding from First Gulf Bank and Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait for LC/TR/Chq discounting/Invoice Discounting/LG/APG
• Hedging foreign currency payments for imports from Japan
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE - INDIA
AJS & Associates, Bangalore Jan’03 – Jun’03
Senior Audit Executive (6 months)
(For Scandent Network Company, Coromangala, Bangalore)
Belani Group of Companies, Kolkata Jan’01 – Dec’02
Cost Accountant (2 years)
(Construction of Residential and Commercial Properties)
Suzerain Engineers Private Limited, Kolkata Dec’99 – Dec’00
Accounts Executive (1 year)
(Engineering Company for structural design)
INTERNSHIP/ARTICLESHIP
Rawat & Company(Statutory Audit) & SP Basu & Company(Excise & Internal audit) , Kolkata Internship/Articleship Jul’96 – Jun’99
(3 years)
IT SKILLS
• Working knowledge of Oracle EBS R 12 and Oracle Implementation , Orion, Tally & Quickbooks.
• Ms Word,MS Excel and Powerpoint
PERSONAL DETAILS
• Date of Birth: 25th December 1974
• Languages Known: English, Hindi, Bengali, Malyalam, Tamil
• Present Address: Bahrain
• Permanent Address: Kerala
• Nationality: Indian
• Passport Details: U0205969 (Valid Till 08/09/2030)
• No. of Dependents: 2 Members
• Marital Status: Married
• Visa Status: Residence Visa(Bahrain)
L.P.SOORAJ
FCMA