Financial Controller

Financial Controller – Private Debt – Corporate

Permanent Contract

Paris, France

AXA Investment Managers (AXA IM) is a multi-expert asset management company within the AXA Group, a global leader in financial protection and wealth management. AXA IM is one of the largest European-based asset managers with approximately 830bn in assets under management as of the end of September 2020. AXA IM employs 750+ investment professionals around the world and operates out of 15 investment centers.

Given its growth prospects, the Commercial Real Estate & Infrastructure Fund Management Controlling Group team of AXA IM – Real Assets is looking for a Financial Controller - Corporate to join either its London or Paris office. We are looking for a dynamic, rigorous, motivated team-player with previous experience in real estate, debt or in finance to be part of our expanding team.

The role will focus on the Corporate Management of investment structures in Europe across different real estate asset classes, geographies and risk profile.

The candidate will follow the life of the funds from its creation up until liquidation. He/She will be part of a team of more than 10 professionals interacting with the Fund Management team and other internal teams (client relationships and risk teams) and third parties (banks, borrowers, facility agents, legal advisors, accountants, auditors, etc).

The successful candidate will be required to adapt as the FMCG function evolves and to assist in the role-out of an ongoing systems/controls/processes upgrade in line with the growth of the platform.

What we offer :

We are proud to foster a high-performance culture, which means that we seek to recruit and retain people who are not only technically-skilled but also globally-minded, innovative and able to leverage their unique perspectives and life experiences to support our success as a company. AXA IM is committed to building an inclusive culture, valuing diversity and supporting the career progression of all employees.

Key Accountabilities:

• Corporate Management: You will be involved in the daily management of the debt funds, in collaboration with our fund management team. The main tasks include monitoring of the financial performance of the debt funds (IRR and Dividend Yield Calculation), Cash Flows, preparing investors’ reports, managing our FX hedging exposures and overseeing the fund distributions (dividends and capital upstreams) and capital calls.

Main responsibilities are (but are not limited to):

• Supervision and monitoring of investment vehicles and separate accounts for his/her business area.
• Management of the investment structure including notably cash management, maintenance of the tax structure and compliance with tax and legal obligations.
• Responsibility of preparation of cash forecasts, capital calls and cash upstreams.
• Derivatives (rools, CCS, collateral, hedging ratios).
• Compliance with fund/mandate documentation (incl. Guidelines checks).
• Fund performance monitoring (IRR, waterfall calculations).
• Reportings: reconciliation of dashboards (position, transaction, etc. in collaboration with service providers) and follow up of specific requests from clients.
• Reconciliation of financial information (Simcorp Dimension) as to ensure the quality of the internally and externally shared data.
• Audits/Service providers: Review and validation of partnership accounting, partner’s capital statements and Lux GAAP/IFRS financial statements, Service Review (TA, Domiciliary, etc.).
• Adhoc/transversal projects: Working on recurrent analysis and ad-hoc queries with other departments among the firm (Client Servicing, Compliance, Legal, Treasury, etc.), FMCG Private Debt processes reviews and upgrades.

Role Requirements

Education / Qualifications and Experience

• Business schools, engineering schools or universities.
• Previous experiences (2 to 5 years) in a financial institution will be appreciated (asset management company or private equity/debt funds).
• Proven financial, analytical and organizational skills.
• English (high proficiency required), German is a plus and would be appreciated.
• Appetite for Funds Legal documentation.
• Appetite for/knowledge of the Real Estate/Infra Debt sector and Fund operational management.
• Team player, multi-tasking, rigorousness, desire and flexibility to learn and grow in a fast-paced environment and capacity for synthesizing and prioritizing.
• Advanced skills in Excel/VBA. Knowledge of Simcorp Dimension is a plus but not a must have.