Vice President, Leveraged Finance Transaction Execution

Do you want your voice heard and your actions to count?

Discover your opportunity with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s leading financial groups. Across the globe, we’re 150,000 colleagues, striving to make a difference for every client, organization, and community we serve. We stand for our values, building long-term relationships, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world.

With a vision to be the world’s most trusted financial group, it’s part of our culture to put people first, listen to new and diverse ideas and collaborate toward greater innovation, speed and agility. This means investing in talent, technologies, and tools that empower you to own your career.

Join MUFG, where being inspired is expected and making a meaningful impact is rewarded.

OVERVIEW OF THE DEPARTMENT/SECTION

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (“MUFG”) is one of the world’s leading financial groups. Headquartered in Tokyo and with over 360 years of history, MUFG has a global network with around 3,000 offices in more than 50 markets. The Group has over 180,000 employees, and offers services including commercial banking, trust banking, securities, credit cards, consumer finance, asset management, and leasing.

As one of the top financial groups globally with a vision to be the world's most trusted, we want to attract, nurture and retain the most talented individuals in the market. The size and range of MUFG's global business creates opportunities for our employees to stretch themselves and reap the rewards, whilst our common values, to behave with integrity and responsibility, and to build a culture which is fair, transparent, and honest, underpin everything that we do. We aim to be the financial partner of choice for our clients, whatever their requirements, building long-term relationships, serving society, and fostering shared and sustainable growth for a better world.

The EMEA LF Transaction Execution team sits within the EMEA Leveraged Finance and Mid Market Direct Lending team, which is part of the Global Corporate and Investment Banking Division of MUFG. The team works seamlessly with the Origination and Leveraged Capital Markets teams to bridge commercial expertise and deliver commercial structuring, advisory and execution services on sponsor leveraged finance loan transactions. The team also engages on each transaction with the in-house EMEA Legal team (responsible for engagement and management of external counsel for the transaction, management of the legal risks, legal negotiations and overall having oversight of the transactions from a legal perspective). 

Please visit our website for more information - mufgemea.com.

NUMBER OF DIRECT REPORTS

None.

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE ROLE 

We are seeking a Vice President with a transactional background in leveraged finance to join the front office EMEA Leveraged Finance (large cap and mid market) team in London.

This role is focused on (i) managing the commercial negotiation of transactional documentation for leveraged loan financing transactions (including mandate/commitment documents, facility agreements and intercreditor agreements (as applicable)); and (ii) assisting with any commercial structuring considerations and identifying any commercial risks or issues that arise in the broader transaction documentation or process.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsible for:

• Providing transaction execution support throughout the entire lifecycle of EMEA sponsor leveraged finance loan transactions, from origination (e.g. advice on grids/term sheets from a commercial structuring perspective, lead commercial negotiations of commitment / long form documentation) to closing/post-closing (e.g. funding, A&Es, add-ons)
• Leading commercial negotiation of financing documentation with sponsor clients, in conjunction with the in-house EMEA Legal team, which engages and manages external counsel
• Advising on the commercial aspects of the structuring of leveraged finance transactions
• In conjunction with the in-house EMEA Legal team, demonstrating an in-depth knowledge of different finance structures (e.g. TLB underwrite, direct lending), guarantee, security, subordination and leakage issues
• Reviewing commercial aspects of the documentation at term sheet and credit agreement stages for compliance with MUFG’s internal policies and best practice standards, in conjunction with the in-house EMEA Legal team
• Ensuring consistency regarding documentation commercial standards; being the central touch point/centre of excellence for emerging market trends and documentation-related internal escalation processes
• Coordinating the documentation process and ensuring that all relevant internal policy issues are addressed and required internal processes are obtained in time
• Keeping up to date with recent market trends in leveraged finance transactions
• Working closely with the in-house EMEA Legal team (who is responsible for identifying legal and documentation risks) with a view to continuously improve the control architecture around documentation
• Developing junior front-office staff and conducting internal training sessions for front-office on documentation commercial issues, market trends and  best practices in executing transactions

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Work experience

• Significant and up to date market experience and knowledge of European and US cross-border leveraged finance transactions
• Experience in an in-house environment, either as a secondee or transaction execution role helpful
• Knowledge of high yield bond processes helpful.

Functional / Technical Skills and Competencies:

• Critical and creative thinker with strong business centricity
• Ability to work in a fast paced and pressured environment
• Ability to be proactive and anticipate issues with transaction documentation
• Simplifying the complex and ability to communicate clearly and succinctly
• Ability to take prudent risk based decisions, and balance the need for timely decisions in a pressured and market driven environment
• Skilled at building trusting relationships with internal stakeholders, senior management and external clients
• Confidence to function independently whilst proficient at recognising the need for escalation and specialist advice on highly complex issues, unusual situations and matters that may pose significant financial, reputational and/or other risk to MUFG
• Coaching mindset and aptitude for disseminating accumulated knowledge and experience among colleagues
• Innovative attitude focused on simplification and efficiencies (e.g. awareness and willingness to develop AI or streamline processes)
• High level of integrity and professionalism
• Preferred proficiency in at least one European language (preferably French) other than English

Education / Qualifications:

• University level qualifications or equivalent

PERSONAL REQUIREMENTS

• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy
• Excellent communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Results driven, with a strong sense of accountability and ownership
• Proactive, motivated and positive approach / outlook
• Strong decision-making skills and ability to demonstrate sound judgement
• Structured and logical approach to work
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Ability to operate with urgency and prioritise work accordingly
• Ability to manage large workloads and tight deadlines
• Calm approach, with the ability to perform well in a pressurised environment
• Business focussed with willingness to work off-hours if needed
• Excellent Microsoft Office skills

We are open to considering flexible working requests in line with organisational requirements.

MUFG is committed to embracing diversity and building an inclusive culture where all employees are valued, respected and their opinions count. We support the principles of equality, diversity and inclusion in recruitment and employment, and oppose all forms of discrimination on the grounds of age, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and maternity, race, gender reassignment, religion or belief and marriage or civil partnership.

We make our recruitment decisions in a non-discriminatory manner in accordance with our commitment to identifying the right skills for the right role and our obligations under the law.