Interim Chief Financial Officer — Refinancing

Qualified candidates: financing with operating substance

Relevant candidates will have closed a refinancing for an operating industrial business and remained accountable for the forecast supporting it. They should be comfortable challenging capital expenditure requests, explaining earnings-to-cash differences and negotiating with multiple financing parties. A strong accounting or corporate finance background must be accompanied by practical treasury leadership and disciplined documentation.

What the CFO must put on the table

Develop an integrated forecast linking factory performance, maintenance expenditure, working capital and debt service. Test the sensitivity of funding needs to delayed orders, customer concentration and slower inventory conversion. Prepare a refinancing timetable that works backwards from the point at which negotiating flexibility starts to deteriorate, rather than from the final repayment date.

The CFO will own the quality of the financing information pack, coordinate responses to lender diligence and identify inconsistencies before they undermine credibility. Financing alternatives should be compared on liquidity headroom, security, covenant flexibility, execution risk and the operational restrictions they introduce—not headline margin alone.

The financing case should distinguish contracted order coverage from indicative demand and show how each converts into collections. Prepare a sources-and-uses bridge for the transaction, including fees, required repayments, seasonal needs and any liquidity that is unavailable to the borrowing entity. A refinancing recommendation should also explain how much forecast error the structure can absorb. The CFO must be able to compare a cheaper but restrictive proposal with a more flexible alternative using the operating plan, not simply a financing-cost calculation.

Completion means more than signed facilities

The assignment should establish a dependable reporting calendar, clear covenant ownership and a handover that enables the permanent finance team to manage the new facilities. Candidates should explain how they have handled a material forecast deterioration during a financing process and how they preserved decision options without withholding adverse information.