Head of Commodities, Diversified Energy & Infrastructure, Trade & Working Capital

Role Overview

We are seeking a highly experienced Trade & Working Capital originator and player-manager to lead our origination activity across Commodity clients, with additional responsibility for clients in the Diversified Energy and Infrastructure sectors.

The successful candidate will have a strong track record of originating, structuring, negotiating and executing complex trade and working capital transactions, with particular depth in commodity-related financing. They will combine strong client origination capabilities with excellent credit judgement and detailed product knowledge and will be comfortable leading transactions from initial client engagement and structuring through credit approval, documentation and execution.

This is very much a player-manager role. In addition to leading and developing a team of originators, the successful candidate will be expected personally to originate opportunities, lead important client discussions and take ownership of significant and complex transactions.

The role requires excellent stakeholder management skills working closely with Corporate Coverage and colleagues across Trade & Working Capital including Structuring and Syndications, Operations but also Credit, Product, Legal to identify opportunities and deliver financing solutions that meet clients' commercial requirements while demonstrating strong risk discipline to senior Credit/Risk stakeholders whilst generating appropriate returns for the bank.

Key Responsibilities

• Assume senior Trade & Working Capital origination responsibility for a defined portfolio of Commodity, Diversified Energy and Infrastructure clients, driving transaction origination, product penetration and income growth.
• Act as a player-manager, personally originating and leading material transactions while managing, mentoring and developing a team of originators (current team of 4).
• Build senior relationships with clients, particularly Trade Teams, Treasurers, CFOs and senior Finance and Procurement professionals, developing a detailed understanding of their businesses, working capital cycles, commodity flows and financing requirements.
• Originate, structure and execute bilateral and syndicated trade and working capital transactions, including trade loans, commodity prepayments, borrowing base, ECA backed structures and working capital facilities, non-recourse receivables and inventory financing, supply chain finance, letters of credit and guarantees.
• Develop financing structures appropriate to commodity-related businesses, taking account of underlying trade flows, collateral, commodity price movements, working capital cycles, contractual arrangements and associated credit risks.
• Lead complex transactions from initial identification through structuring, credit approval, negotiation, documentation and financial close, coordinating internal and external stakeholders to ensure effective execution.
• Work closely with Corporate Coverage Relationship Directors to identify opportunities across the existing client franchise and develop strategic Trade & Working Capital relationships.
• Partner effectively with Credit/Risk to develop financing structures which appropriately balance clients' commercial objectives with the bank's risk appetite and return requirements.
• Work closely with Product, Structuring, Syndications, Legal and Operations colleagues, ensuring appropriate internal resources are brought together to deliver complex transactions.
• Identify opportunities to deepen relationships and broaden product penetration across clients' wider working capital requirements, including receivables, payables, inventory and traditional trade instruments.
• Work across International Corporate Banking and with colleagues in other jurisdictions to originate and execute cross-border and multi-jurisdictional transactions.
• Maintain strong market awareness across commodity, energy and infrastructure sectors and use external networks, industry intelligence and existing client relationships to develop new opportunities.
• Help shape and execute the strategic agenda for the Trade & Working Capital business, representing the business at senior forums, client events and relevant industry conferences.
• Maintain consistently high standards of risk management, conduct and controls throughout the origination and execution process.

Person Specification

The successful candidate is likely to have significant relevant experience in Trade, Commodity Finance and/or Working Capital origination, with substantial experience working directly with corporate clients. They should demonstrate:

• A strong and demonstrable track record of originating and executing trade and working capital financing transactions for commodity-related businesses.
• Deep understanding of how commodity clients operate, including their physical trade flows, procurement and sales cycles, working capital requirements, liquidity drivers and financing structures.
• Strong credit skills and the ability to analyse complex transactions, identify the principal commercial and structural risks and develop appropriate mitigants.
• Experience of structuring transactions involving working capital assets and, where appropriate, collateral such as receivables, inventory and underlying commodity flows.
• Strong knowledge of traditional trade products including letters of credit, guarantees, bills/prom notes and trade loans, combined with broader knowledge of working capital solutions.
• Experience of more structured solutions such as ECA, borrowing-base, receivables, prepayments, inventory and asset-backed financing would be a strong advantage.
• Experience working with large, diversified commodity traders, commodity producers/processors and commodity-intensive corporates would be particularly relevant.
• Knowledge of the Diversified Energy and Infrastructure sectors, and an understanding of how trade and working capital solutions can support clients within those industries.
• Strong commercial judgement, including an ability to balance client requirements, risk, pricing, capital usage and return.
• Experience of syndicated and/or club transactions and the ability to coordinate multiple banks and internal stakeholders on complex deals.
• A strong external network and the ability to develop relationships with senior client decision-makers and other relevant market participants.
• Demonstrable leadership capability, with the credibility to lead experienced originators while remaining personally active with clients and transactions.

Essential Skills

• Deep Trade & Working Capital / Commodity Finance expertise
• Experience across energy, metals/mining and/or agricultural commodity clients.
• Proven transaction origination track record.
• Excellent credit and structuring skills.
• Strong knowledge of structured trade finance techniques and ability to obtain stakeholder buy-in to obtain necessary approvals
• Detailed knowledge of L/Cs, guarantees and other vanilla trade products
• Strong negotiation and transaction-management capability.
• Ability to navigate complex internal credit and approval processes.
• Strong commercial and financial acumen.
• Excellent senior client relationship skills.
• Strong people leadership, coaching and development skills.
• Ability to operate effectively across Coverage, Product, Risk, Legal, Operations and international teams.

Purpose of the role
To manage sales and set the strategic direction. Provide support to the bank's senior management team, and to manage sales risk across the organisation.

Accountabilities

• Development of strategic direction for sales, including the implementation of up to date methodologies and processes.
• Management of sales, including oversight of colleagues and their performance, implementation of departmental goals and objectives, oversight of department efficiency and effectiveness
• Relationship management of sales stakeholders, including identifying relevant stakeholders, and maintenance of the quality of external third party services.
• Development and implementation of policies and procedures for sales.
• Management of sales risk, including identification of potential risks, development of strategies to mitigate those risks, and maintenance of alignment between the bank's sales and compliance functions
• Monitoring the financial performance of sales department, including revenue, profitability, and cost control.
• Conducting thorough market research to understand market trends, competitive landscape, and regulatory changes to identify market opportunities.

Director Expectations

• To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide
• They manage the direction of a large team or sub-function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits . click apply for full job details