The Financial Institutions Group (FIG) is one of the major industry groups at IFC, responsible for managing roughly 40% of IFC’s overall business in terms of volume and capital at risk. FIG engages in a wide range of sub-sectors, including Microfinance, SME, Gender, Climate, Insurance, Capital Markets, Housing, Distressed Assets, Payments, fintech, and other areas, with both investment and advisory services delivered to IFC’s clients through IFC’s global network.
The East Asia & Pacific FIG team is seeking an Investment Officer (GG1) to be based in Beijing with a deep understanding of policies and practices related to private investment in the China financial sector and preferably the ability to support the development of a high-quality investment pipeline in China. The selected candidate, together with the FIG EAP team, will play an important role in (i) growing investment solutions in China and the region while achieving strong profitability and development impact; (ii) building new and nurturing existing client relationships to make IFC the preferred partner for key clients; (iii) managing a portfolio of assets for strong profitability and impact.
Duties and Accountabilities:
Contribute to drafting strategies for sectors, countries, or regions for business development; and develop and execute strategies for more complex client engagements with the objective of building a robust investment or advisory pipeline.
Develop long-term relationships and engagement plans with key local clients to identify and act on opportunities for repeat business.
Draw comparisons with other industry projects across the region to determine fit with the current portfolio and conduct quality control to ensure accuracy and adequacy of analytical work completed by junior staff.
Assess and articulate the development impact and IFC additionality of moderately complex transactions at the sector or subsector level. Engage with IFC economics team to build AIMM story including any market creation impact.
Gather market intelligence to stay informed of emerging trends in sectors and the country that could have a broad impact on a country or subsector portfolio.
Lead quarterly assessments of ratings, loan loss reserves, or valuations for country, region, or sector portfolio. Conduct quality control over work performed by analysts and junior investment officers.
Lead structuring of moderately complex investment or advisory transactions incorporating lessons of project evaluations and portfolio management experience. Ensure timely processing, thorough due diligence, and client satisfaction.
Thoroughly review work provided by clients and prepared by team members to ensure solid structure and consistency of legal documents with agreed-upon terms.
Maintain relationships with clients and other stakeholders (government, development partners, WBG) who are at a level where they can influentially participate in developing immediate and future business opportunities.
Negotiate moderately complex waivers, amendments, and rescheduling, and help prepare official restructuring memos for approval.
Participate as part of teams led by senior (GG2/GH) investment officers in putting together sector interventions and client engagement plans for IFC’s strategic and top-tier clients.
Participate in the design of approaches and interventions to create upstream markets and provide substantive input to key components of Country Private Sector Diagnostics.
Perform complex, credit risk rating assessments, covenant compliance reviews, and development impact assessments. Review the quality of portfolio review work performed by more junior staff.
Perform assessment of project development impact and articulate realization of AIMM story and market creation impact, if any, for moderately complex transactions.
Prepare investment or advisory committee materials focusing on financial and nonfinancial risk assessments and deal structuring in moderately complex transactions, applying knowledge of policy and procedures, and assessing exceptions where relevant.
Use networks to keep projects moving and collaborate with key internal stakeholders to obtain buy-in on deals and negotiate risk mitigation strategies.
Supervise and ensure the quality of portfolio reporting information prepared by junior staff and provide further inputs in assessing more complex projects.
Selection Criteria:
Master's degree or equivalent in business, finance, economics or other relevant field
At least 10-12 years of relevant experience including a proven track record in business consulting, investment banking, or operational experience in the sector or technical or professional field.
Capacity to understand, enable, and participate in market creation opportunities for multiple countries by demonstrating long-term perspective, open-mindedness, persistence, innovation, and ability to leverage all available tools (including de-risking tools); good understanding of the roles and value-add of IFC and WBG in new markets.
Understanding of relevant country strategies and obstacles to achieving them.
Has a reputation for listening carefully to clients and stakeholders and asking targeted questions to understand their needs and determine the viability of a business opportunity.
Build long-term engagement with clients and credibility by demonstrating knowledge of their business, sector, and culture; maintain an ongoing dialogue on their business needs, operations, and strategies as well as opportunities for strategically aligned business deals.
Ability to maintain client engagement during portfolio stage to identify growth opportunities, address emerging problems, and focus on actions that promote sustainability and ensure that overall development impact objectives are met.
Build and maintain extensive networks in sectors, country, and region to bring new engagements, and business opportunities.
