Interim Portfolio Group CFO — Acquisition Funding Continuity

The mandate

A portfolio group's financing for approved acquisitions is moving from signed commitments into drawdown and continuing covenant obligations, and needs an executive finance owner. Treasury and reporting teams hold the documents, but the conditions must be reconciled with operating cash by an accountable executive. The interim chief will take that responsibility, ensuring that acquisition funding remains usable and that subsidiaries are not left dependent on proceeds whose release conditions have not actually been met.

The appointment begins on 26 October 2026 for twelve months of five-day weekly leadership. A permanent portfolio CFO search runs separately. Any extension requires written holding-board approval and must remain within an overall 24-month engagement cap. Handover requires a verified financing obligation book, repeatable covenant reporting and a successor-led liquidity review covering both acquisition commitments and the following quarter's ordinary operations. Transaction completion alone does not satisfy the exit test.

Delegation includes approved facility utilisation, funded operating priorities and finance control decisions within existing board limits. New acquisition terms, unapproved guarantees, shareholder capital changes and material lender waivers require board authority with qualified advice. Legal counsel owns interpretation of financing conditions; the CFO owns the evidence, operating consequences and financial recommendation. A condition cannot be treated as fulfilled merely because a transaction timetable would otherwise slip or because an executive expects a lender to accept it later.

Fifty-two staff report through treasury, reporting and subsidiary leaders. The assignment excludes sourcing new acquisitions, redesigning the entire business portfolio and underwriting market risk for unrelated investments. The board expects control of the finance seat, including accounts and executive financial communication, while the funding programme stabilises. The permanent successor must inherit clear obligations and unresolved choices, not a confident summary that conceals borrowed cash earmarked elsewhere, contingent consideration or guarantees still awaiting authorised decisions.

What you will own

• Establish the acquisition financing obligation book from executed documents and confirmed specialist advice, mapping release conditions, security requirements and recurring information obligations to evidence owners and authorised decision routes.
• Decide use of approved facilities against verified funding availability and operating needs, preventing earmarked acquisition resources or conditional proceeds from being treated as unrestricted cash for ordinary subsidiary commitments.
• Lead covenant and lender reporting through reconciled source records, investigating classification or timing differences before certification and escalating matters that require a waiver, new approval or authoritative contractual interpretation.
• Govern acquisition-related cash commitments including deferred consideration and funded integration allowances, distinguishing approved obligations from emerging requests whose financial case or authority has not yet been established.
• Maintain the portfolio liquidity plan through downside funding scenarios, presenting the operating response if a drawdown is delayed or lender capacity narrows rather than relying on uncommitted replacement capital as a default solution.
• Report financing and acquisition exposure to directors with clear alternatives, preserving their authority over changed terms and material guarantees while documenting the consequence of each choice for cash, accounts and continuing obligations.
• Transfer the finance seat through successor-led covenant and liquidity cycles, retaining evidence, adviser references and unresolved issue ownership so the incoming CFO can operate independently after interim coverage ends.

Candidate qualifications

• Bring 22–28 years in finance with prior group CFO or substantial multi-business chief responsibility and personal ownership of acquisition financing or comparably complex capital execution. Demonstrate the ability to lead accounts, cash and finance managers as well as a funding event. The evidence must identify decisions you held, obligations you controlled and a situation where documentation did not support the financing assumption management initially preferred.
• Have raised or managed meaningful debt and equity with command of conditions, guarantees, covenant definitions and recurring reporting. Explain how you proved funding was available for a specific use, including restrictions that a headline facility amount did not reveal. A recognised accounting or management-accounting qualification is required, with appropriate use of legal and tax specialists for authoritative interpretation of the actual financing arrangement.
• Demonstrate credible acquisition financial judgement and downside modelling. Describe a change in consideration, timing or integration funding that materially affected the portfolio cash plan, and how the board received alternatives before committing further support. Success must not be measured only by completing a transaction; the assignment requires continuing control of obligations and transparent communication when expected funding becomes conditional or delayed.
• Be available for the stated start, five-day commitment and planned international lender or transaction meetings. Show a senior interim or executive handover that left repeatable covenant, reporting and cash routines rather than dependence on personal relationships. You must protect confidential transaction information, delegate ordinary finance decisions and make residual obligations candidly visible to the permanent successor and directors.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 12 October 2026. Mandate reference CVU-INT-2026-IND-229.