Graduate: Financial Modeller

About the Company

Since its establishment in 2008, Mulilo has grown into one of South Africa’s leading Independent Power Producers (IPP). Mulilo is majority owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), with Norfund holding an additional investment through the Norwegian Climate Investment Fund.

Mulilo develops, constructs and operates utility scale wind, solar PV and battery energy storage projects across South Africa. The company currently operates 450 MW of wind and solar capacity, with a further 765 MW under construction. A portfolio exceeding 2 GW is advancing toward financial close, while the long-term development pipeline exceeds 30 GW.

Mulilo has concluded power purchase agreements under the South African government’s Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP), as well as private offtake agreements with several large corporate energy users.

Mulilo places significant emphasis on its people and recognises that successful infrastructure delivery depends on capable and committed teams. The company prides itself on providing a world-class working environment, with a clear focus on career progression and personal growth. Grounded in its values, Mulilo fosters a culture of accountability, collaboration and purpose, while remaining committed to its environmental, social and governance responsibilities.

About this role

The Graduate Financial Modeller will learn how to build financial models for complex Renewable Energy Projects. As key skills develop the Graduate Financial Modeller will support the financial team in preparing, building and optimizing financial models. In conjunction with other Financial Analyst/s this role will manage the modelling process as it relates to all project finance, project development, valuation and M&A activities. The role will provide first-hand exposure to private equity, investment banking and M&A activities and would suit an ambitious candidate keen to establish a strong foundation within financial modelling before progressing to take more responsibility for project financing or M&A work and commercial negotiations.

This position will offer you the opportunity to work in a dynamic and entrepreneurial organisation, in a growing market, and in a fast-paced industry.

Duties and responsibilities 

• Learn how to design, build and maintain highly complex financial models for renewable energy projects.
• Analysis of cash flows.
• Ability to audit/sense check a financial model quickly and succinctly to ensure outputs are reasonable in order to make quick, correct commercial decisions.
• Ability to challenge those providing inputs to ensure an accurate representation of the risks and rewards is prepared and presented.
• Accurate management of information flows used to maintain financial models.
• Assist with structural integrity and functionality of models including accounting, tax and regulatory requirements of various markets.
• Perform market analysis to support key activities – project finance and M&A
• Support the acquisition, investment, tender, bidding and financial close activities of multi-billion Rand projects.
• Contribute towards commercial negotiations and assumptions included within such models, highlighting potential efficiencies/risk areas on acquisitions, investments, disposals & associated funding activities.
• Work internally as part of multi-functional teams to assess markets and projects as required.
• Clear financial analysis and communication of results
• Support the preparation of internal presentations and investment committee/board approval packs, including collating model outputs and key commercial messages into clear, decision-ready material.
• Shadow and support the team on lender and sponsor/partner engagements, gaining exposure to due diligence, information requests and negotiation processes.
• Assist with the review of project finance documentation and strategy from term sheet through to final finance documents, including checking consistency between the financial model and the underlying documents.

Required skills and education background. 

• Bachelor’s degree holder in Finance, Mathematics, Business Science or relevant disciplines
• Ability to learn fast in the working environment.
• Renewable Energy or wider energy industry knowledge is desirable.
• Willingness to learn financial modelling.
• Desire to work with numbers and formulas.
• Must be initiative-taking and be able to take initiative for requirements of the finance team.
• Ability to work unsupervised as necessity but must be able to integrate into diversified multi-functional teams as required.
• Understanding of Financial Statements
• Ability to analyse qualitative & quantitative information for decision making.
• Strong communication skills
• Advanced proficiency with MS Excel and MS Office Suite
• Strong project management, communication, and relationship skills towards external project stakeholders to ensure project progress.

Desirable attributes

The ideal candidate has a genuine passion for building the systems and standards that make a growing business perform better and is energised by working across every part of the organisation rather than owning a single silo. They bring the quiet authority to hold departments accountable to a shared standard without becoming an auditor and see governance as a lever for enterprise performance rather than a compliance exercise.

Mulilo is an employer of choice and offers an extremely competitive total remuneration package for this position.

Additional information

The position is based at Mulilo's Cape Town offices. Occasional travel to project and construction sites may be required in line with business needs.