Acquisition-Accounting Challenge Board Adviser

The mandate

Following several tower and fibre acquisitions, the group carries large customer-relationship values, restoration provisions and goodwill supported by models produced under different regional assumptions. Operational forecasts have changed faster than valuation papers, and audit-committee discussions begin after management has already aligned with external specialists. Directors want earlier, technically credible challenge across recognition, measurement and post-close evidence.

Three adviser days in each of nine months will be organised around a judgment docket rather than routine reporting. One day examines management and specialist evidence, one challenges operational assumptions with asset leaders, and one prepares the committee’s decision questions. Four formal committee sessions and four regional asset or auditor reviews are included in the retainer.

The appointment ends after the month-nine annual reporting and acquisition-accounting review. Renewal is possible only for a separately identified transaction or impairment cycle approved through a fresh independence assessment; the adviser does not become a continuing shadow controller. Unused monthly capacity lapses because judgment challenge must occur before management positions harden.

The adviser has no line authority and carries no executive responsibility for accounts, valuation, tax, forecasts, audit liaison, disclosures or deal approval. Management selects policies and estimates, external auditors form their opinions and directors oversee reporting. The adviser may question evidence and recommend further work but cannot sign a valuation or direct a journal.

Current interests involving portfolio counterparties, tower operators, valuation firms, accounting advisers, lenders, auditors or bidders create conflicts requiring disclosure before a docket is opened. Prior authorship of any material model must also be declared. The chair controls recusal, and the retainer cannot vary with recognised goodwill, impairment or transaction completion.

Why the board wants this voice

Management and external specialists develop positions together, while operational evidence reaches directors late in the reporting cycle. Audit partners challenge assurance but cannot design the board’s independent commercial questions. An experienced transaction-accounting leader can help the committee interrogate judgments without displacing preparer or auditor responsibility.

What you will own

• Challenge identification and measurement of customer relationships, licences, contracts, restoration obligations, deferred positions and goodwill.
• Test operational forecasts against tenancy, churn, pricing, maintenance, decommissioning and capital evidence by asset cohort.
• Examine consistency between deal models, purchase accounting, post-close budgets, covenant cases and impairment monitoring.
• Probe specialist scope, method choice, sensitivities, source data, management overlays and unresolved contradictory evidence.
• Shape committee triggers for forecast deterioration, integration delay, customer concentration and changed restoration assumptions.
• Assess whether disclosures explain estimation uncertainty, measurement change and governance without becoming promotional narrative.
• Frame judgment dossiers, missing evidence, dissent, follow-up actions and decisions for each committee cycle.

Candidate qualifications

• Led acquisition accounting and post-close valuation governance for infrastructure, telecommunications or comparable long-duration contracted assets.
• Challenged purchase-price allocations linking customer contracts, site rights, licences, restoration duties, deferred positions and goodwill.
• Reconciled tenancy, churn, maintenance and decommissioning evidence to accounting forecasts and impairment monitoring across jurisdictions.
• Worked alongside external auditors and valuation specialists while preserving distinct preparer, board-adviser and assurance responsibilities.
• Identified inconsistent assumptions among investment cases, purchase-accounting models, operating budgets, covenant forecasts and impairment tests.
• Advised audit committees independently of transaction counterparties, specialist valuers, lenders and incumbent accounting firms.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend four Singapore committee sessions and complete four regional asset or auditor evidence reviews.
• Will disclose infrastructure, counterparty, valuation, audit, accounting-advisory and lender relationships by transaction.
• Brings acquisition-accounting governance for long-duration assets; general board finance experience is insufficient.
• Accepts no authority over journals, forecasts, valuation conclusions, disclosures, audit opinions or deal approval.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe an acquisition-accounting judgment you reopened after operating evidence diverged from the deal model.
2. 49 words maximum. Which valuer, auditor, lender or infrastructure relationship could require your recusal?
3. 49 words maximum. What evidence would make you challenge a customer-relationship value before annual reporting?