Tax & Treasury Controller at Pernod Ricard

Job Purpose

Oversees the general treasury and taxation functions for the legal entities and business units which make up the Pernod Ricard Sub Saharan Africa management entity, an affiliate within the Pernod Ricard global organisation:

• Provision of treasury analysis and information which enables the various affiliated and departments of Pernod Ricard SSA to make appropriate business decisions.
• Ensure that all Pernod Ricard SSA affiliates are having sufficient liquidity to meet their medium-term needs
• Support the Pernod Ricard SSA affiliates to ensure a smooth consolidation process
• Manage Tax matters in order to optimize financial and operational impacts

Key Duties and responsibilities

Tax Management

• Manage tax matters (transfer pricing process, taxes and duties, corporate tax, tax accounting and filing) to optimise financial and operational impact
• Handle tax control and litigation, liaising with tax authorities
• Coordinate the implementation of Group tax strategy.
• Analyse business facts and implement alternative tax schemes.
• Manage tax planning, optimising the amount of taxable income and of tax deductions.
• Monitor tax environment changes, understand their implication and make recommendations accordingly

Monitor taxation obligations and statutory requirements

• Prepare tax returns for PR South Africa
• Half-yearly and annual tax calculations prepared in conjunction with Head of Finance
• Tax returns are reviewed and submitted timeously to avoid fines, penalties and interest
• Provisional tax payments made timeously
• Statutory returns are submitted annually and timeously
• Tax queries are competently resolved

Cash Management and Financing

Monthly Reporting

• Ensure that all deadlines are respected and support SSA affiliates to resolve any issues
• Production and reconciliation of key month end reports regarding Balance Sheet and Cash Flow for all SSA markets
• Analyse working capital needs for all SSA markets, by reviewing on a monthly basis information, such as: Receivables Dashboard (ageing by customer), Inventory levels, Accounts Payables movements, Brand company payables dashboard (ageing by brand company) and Other Balance sheet details
• Monitoring key Working Capital Ratios and tracking progress versus the Annual targets for all SSA markets
• Analyse BIS cash comments on cash performance
• Update the DSO, DIC, DFC and DPA ratio models
• Coordination of the internal management reporting and provision of reliable figures and user friendly comments

Financing

• Collect actual Cash In Cash Out (CICO) from SSA Affiliates on monthly basis
• Develop short term Cash Forecasting through CICO to understand the Cash needs of SSA affiliates
• Ensure coherence of figures communicated compared to Balance sheet submitted in reporting packages as well as latest P&L projections (budget or estimate)
• Clarify any variance or significant change compared to previous submissions
• Prepare any recommendation as regards future finance needs

Financial Accounting, Consolidation & Forecasting

Budget / Latest Estimates & Forecasting

• Create and maintain bottom-up model to enable simulations at SSA level
• Ensure affiliates prepare bottom-up budget supported with proper calculations and ratio analysis
• Review and challenge simulation to reach agreement on ambitious but achievable targets
• Make sure that all deadlines are respected and support affiliates to resolve any issues

Ad hoc tasks

• Best Practices: Collect and share best practices on Taxation, Treasury, Financing and Consolidation
• Support Missions: Identifies weaknesses and organize relevant support missions to the SSA affiliates, to help remediate any potential issues, especially in the areas of Taxation, Working Capital Management and Cash Forecasting
• Value Adding Projects: Roll-out of Group reporting tools and continued support to the business and affiliates

Productive relationships with internal and external stakeholders maintained

Collaborate with internal teams

• Being the interface between Pernod Ricard EMEA, the cluster management and the region’s affiliates on Treasury and Taxation topics
• Regular meetings with senior finance colleagues from the affiliates to support them with all treasury, financing and consolidation issues they might face
• Regular contact with the SSA Management to provide them with working capital analysis insight and help them monitoring the achievement of their cash targets

Collaborate with external agencies

• Ongoing communication with banks and other financial institutions
• Ongoing communication and strong relationship with local tax authorities

Key Competencies and Experience

Knowledge, Skills and Attributes: 

Technical Competencies

• Business Acumen, Cash Management & Financing, Financial Accounting and Consolidation, Taxation & Transfer Pricing, Analytical Thinking, Effective Decision Making, Communication Skills, Driving for Results, Customer Orientation,
• Project Management, out of the box thinking / Innovation

Languages

• Excellent written and spoken English

Qualifications and Experience:

• Formal education, professional qualification or accreditations from industry bodies
• Graduate from Accounting / Business / Taxation or equivalent school, desirable Qualified Accountant (ACA, CIMA or equivalent), Postgraduate Degree in Finance
• 3-5 years in a leading Audit Consulting Firm or
• 3-5 years as a financial controller (in a multinational company)
• Assignments in major industrial companies or experience in the FMCG sector