Specialist | Institutional Fund Operations | Fund Operations (Pricing) at Allan Gray Proprietary Limited

Job Description

The candidate will primarily be responsible for calculating the daily Net Asset Value (NAV) of various investment portfolios (Unit Trust, Pooled Products, Mutual Funds and Multi Manager). This includes the daily income and expense accruals, daily cash reconciliations, accurate calculation of service fees and benchmarks, scrip reconciliations and maintaining the cash positions and margin accounts. The candidate will also be responsible for NAV validation checks, verification checks and accepted tolerance levels for movements within the daily NAV. The candidate is responsible for both calculating the daily NAV and disseminating the NAV into the market. The role entails the accurate end-to-end processing required to support the NAV calculation.

Responsibilities

• Calculating the daily NAV of the Unit Trust, Pooled Products, Mutual Funds and Multi Manager Products 
• Daily expense and income accruals 
• Understanding the mechanism of financial instruments within a portfolio 
• Good understating of corporate actions and the impact on the NAV 
• Daily monitoring of cash balances 
• Daily bank reconciliations of funds and investigating any recon breaks timeously 
• Accurate capturing of foreign and local payments to trustees, custodians and third parties 
• Maintaining cash positions and margin accounts. 
• Calculation of derivatives and valuation of them 
• Accurate calculation of monthly service fees 
• Accurate calculation of benchmarks and understanding how the benchmark performance impacts the performance of the funds Understanding of the performance fee calculation 
• Understand the difference between capital and income components 
• Daily NAV verification and validation checks on funds and assessing if price variances are within an accepted tolerance level Disseminating of daily NAV's to the market 
• Understanding the impact of pricing errors and calculating materiality of the error 
• Daily and monthly scrip reconciliations 
• Review outputs of pricing process to identify all exceptions and anomalies and how the system can be enhanced Documenting and enhancing processes 
• Monitoring and performing periodic income distribution calculation and checks 
• Assist with asset transfers across all platforms 
• Preparation and assistance with year-end audits and auditors' requests 
• Communicating and answering any queries on the funds from internal and external stakeholders 
• Meeting client deadlines in terms of various service level agreements with stakeholders

Experience and Qualifications

•  BSc or BCom, with at least 1-year mathematics, statistics or accounting. 
•  2 years' experience at a financial institution
•  UT, Life or Bermuda fund/product knowledge is advantageous.

Competencies

•  Strong Excel skills 
•  High level of attention to detail and accuracy
•  Deadline driven and has good time management skills 
•  Excellent organizational skills 
•  Results Orientated
•  Works well in a pressurized environment
•  Good verbal and written communication skills
•  Self-motivated, determined, and resilient 
•  A 'self-starter': Someone who takes initiative and is proactive 
•  Analytically minded and has the innate ability to problem solve and make decisions when needed
•  The candidate should be able to work well independently, but also contribute positively to the team by being engaged, building relationships, and assisting the team where necessary 
•  The candidate should also take ownership of contributing to their own personal development
•  Should be able to work flexible hours if required to do so