Group Chief Financial Officer (Confidential search)

This is a Group CFO mandate for an agricultural business operating across Asia and the United Kingdom — two regulatory environments that do not reward generalists. The business sits at the intersection of food systems, land assets, biological asset accounting, and cross-border capital — making the financial leadership function structurally more complex than most CFO roles at comparable revenue scale. The incoming CFO will be the first financial executive to hold accountability across both jurisdictions simultaneously — not as a coordinator between regional finance teams, but as the architect of a single, coherent financial operating model that functions under dual regulatory scrutiny, multi-currency cash complexity, and the biological asset volatility intrinsic to agriculture.

1. Build the consolidated financial architecture Design and own the Group consolidation framework under IFRS, with specific command of IAS 41 (biological assets — fair value vs. cost model decisions), IAS 36 (impairment on land and infrastructure), and the IFRS 16 lease implications of agricultural land concession structures across Asia. This is not a maintenance role. The architecture does not yet exist at Group level in its current form.

2. Build a capital-efficient cross-border treasury function The business operates in multiple Asian jurisdictions — each with distinct FX controls, thin capitalisation rules, and transfer pricing obligations. You will design a treasury framework that minimises the cost of capital across the Group while remaining defensible under both HMRC's transfer pricing scrutiny and the equivalent tax authority regimes across Southeast and East Asia.

3. Own the ESG financial disclosure agenda Agricultural businesses are under disproportionate scrutiny — scope 3 emissions from land use change, biodiversity net gain under the Environment Act 2021, deforestation due diligence under the UK Environment Act and EU EUDR spillover obligations. You will be the executive accountable for making these disclosures credible, consistent, and TCFD-aligned — not delegating this to sustainability without financial rigour.

4. Translate regulatory duality into commercial advantage The UK's post-Brexit agricultural subsidy transition (from EU CAP to DEFRA's ELM schemes — SFI, Countryside Stewardship, Landscape Recovery) creates balance sheet and P&L treatment questions that most finance teams handle inconsistently. Your role is to convert the Group's regulatory literacy into a competitive position — on funding, on tax efficiency, and on capital allocation decisions.

• Financial reporting & statutory compliance — Group consolidation under IFRS; UK statutory accounts under Companies Act 2006; coordination of audits across multiple jurisdictions; FRS 102 familiarity for UK subsidiary structures where applicable. • Treasury & liquidity — Multi-currency cash pooling, seasonal working capital management (agricultural cycles drive material liquidity asymmetry), commodity price hedging strategy, and FX exposure management across GBP and multiple Asian currencies. • Tax structuring — UK corporation tax, HMRC Agricultural Flat Rate VAT Scheme, R&D reliefs applicable to agri-tech investment, and cross-border transfer pricing governance. Asia: withholding tax optimisation, land concession tax treatments, and the evolving Pillar Two minimum tax exposure for the Group. • Investor relations & capital markets — Whether the Group is privately held, PE-backed, or approaching a liquidity event, you will lead the financial narrative for investors, lenders, and strategic partners with P&L fluency and sector credibility. • M&A and transaction support — Agricultural sector consolidation is accelerating in both the UK (post-subsidy pressure on farm viability) and Asia (food security M&A driven by sovereign priorities). You will lead or co-lead financial diligence, structure acquisition financing, and manage post-merger financial integration. • Regulatory compliance & government relations (finance layer) — DEFRA grant and subsidy accounting; HMRC; FCA if capital-raising; SFA (Singapore Food Agency) financing programmes; GACC (China customs) and cross-border food trade financial documentation. • Finance team leadership — Build, mentor, and hold accountable a multi-jurisdictional finance function. Set the standard. Remove the ceiling from talent beneath you.