Imtiaz Esmail

Experience

• 

  Imperial Bank

  Nov 2001 - Oct 2006

  Earlier Career

  Progression up to Manager Loans and Advances, Imperial Bank of Kenya Limited

• 

  Roshan

  Nov 2006 - Jul 2021

  • Business Partner Recorded 130% EBITDA growth from 2018 despite two devastating terrorist attacks with hands on contribution to the improvement of the top line & reduction of Opex- Deployed 4G sites for investment amount of $25m, to win back high value customers (50k). - Introduced fibre broadband and ISP ($4m investment; 100k customers in first year) yielding around 25% ROI. - Protected vital services to all six million subscribers and maximised retention with a churn reduction of 2 pp monthly.- Managed cost reduction programme leading 60% reduction fixed costs over a four year period, Vigourously renegotiated service contracts with OEMs, removed incumbent and sourced new vendor.- Introduced efficient solar hybrid sites (Reduced energy costs by half), landed first ESCO deal across 10 locations for supply of power of KW/per hour basis (resulting in reduced CAPEX spend), replaced generators acquisition with partnership supply model. • Systems and processes o Changed out core charging model platform to digital solution (Matrixx) migrating 8m registered subscribers in a “big bang” approach.o Deployed of Microsoft AX ERP solution, over 9 months , to improve the productivity of 100 users.• Treasury and debt/equity structure o Led the negotiation of a large restructuring of Senior Debt which resulted in >50% waiver in loan principal and a rescheduling of the tenure by 8 years which also included the acquisition of minority Shareholders. Resulted in a recapitalisation to boost the Balance sheet by over $100m.o As a result of 3G, I negotiated and closed a refinance of $30M senior debt to secure up to $65M, restructured debt with International Finance Corporation (IFC), paid off development bank syndicate and secured 24-month repayment holiday. o Seconded to T-Cell in 2015 to lead their first project finance facility with IFC where I successfully negotiated and closed $30m in debt finance which included a 12 month repayment holiday. Show less Direct all aspects of the company’s treasury function. Had 6 direct reports with a total department headcount of 30.•Manage a debt portfolio of over US$200m including compliance reporting and managing relations with senior lenders. The company’s lenders comprise of both commercial and development banks. •Conduct risk analysis on company’s budget, and business plan to ensure compliance with lender requirements. Perform stress tests and sensitivity analysis to assess risk against financing ratios.•Responsible for cash management including cash forecasting and monitoring cash requirements. The team deals with US$1m of cash movement and several hundred individual queries each day.•Established trade finance facilities to more effectively manage purchase of capital equipment (annual budget of US$50m). Successfully expanded available trade facility from US$3m to US$11m over a 3 year period.•Lead negotiations and established short term working capital facilities in the form of overdraft facilities (US$16m) with 3 local banks.•Responsible for hedging forex and interest rate risk for the company. Entered into interest rate swap agreements to mitigate the company’s floating rate exposure. •Oversee entire finance function for the company’s mobile money subsidiary “M-Paisa”. M-Paisa is mobile money transfer service and is offered in partnership with Vodafone. •Liaised with the Board of Directors, auditors, banks, lawyers, tax consultants and shareholdersImperial Bank Kenya Limited (www.imperialbank.co.ke) - Nairobi, Kenya Imperial Bank is amongst the top ten private commercial banks in Kenya. The bank has over 17 branches country wide and an asset base in excess of USD $300m.Manager Loans and Advances Show less Headed up treasury function, made fundamental changes including move away from traditional cash-based environment to automated banking, converted all 500 employees to electronic banking, forged relationships with local lenders and Standard Bank, and shifted Roshan to daily bank reconciliations. Established first trade finance facilities in Afghanistan to manage the purchase of capital equipment, negotiated short term working capital facilities, and an integral part of the team who secured the second phase of senior debt financing involving a prestigious syndicate of five development banks. Show less

  • Chief Financial Officer

    Jul 2013 - Jul 2021

  • Director Controlling

    Jun 2012 - Jun 2013

  • Head of Corporate Treasury/Senior Finance Manager - Mobile Money

    Jan 2010 - May 2012

  • Senior Treasury Manager

    Nov 2006 - Dec 2009

  • Senior Treasury Manager

    Nov 2006 - Dec 2009
• 

  Tcell Tajikistan

  Jul 2021 - Jun 2022

  Chief Financial Officer

  Tcell is Tajikistan's leading Wireless provider with over 40% market share and a network that covers over 95% of the Tajik Population. Brought in as CFO under short notice to drive profitability improvement through growth in new business areas • Revamped the business model (tariffs, construction costs, go to market strategy) for Fibre to the Home Project where 80k homes already passed • Presented an updated Capital structure which incorporated Debt (currently all equity financed) to bring cost of capital from 15.5% to 14%• Revamp finance processes specifically on the procure to pay and up-skilling existing team Show less

• 

  TONOMUS

  Mar 2023 - now

  Finance Director/Head of Finance - Infrastructure

  Heading the finance department for the Infrastructure division of Tonomus