Corporate finance an employee’s market

As the recovery continues, demand for corporate finance practitioners has increased. “It’s an employee’s market right now,” says Paddy Dillon, corporate finance director at professional services firm Grant Thornton.

“During the recession, people were afraid to leave a job for fear it wouldn’t be there when they got back. Now, younger people are once again starting to travel, doing the year in Australia and so on. It’s a sign of confidence but it makes it harder to find good people.”

Recruitment agencies are feeling the upswing. “Over the past three or four years we have seen companies beefing up their corporate finance teams once again,” says Donal O’Brien of Abrivia, a recruitment agency.

“Much of that work is in transaction services, the pre-acquisition due diligence done before offers are made. We’re very busy with the big accountancy firms, with volumes nearly back up to pre-Celtic tiger levels.”

So what are employers looking for? “People who can come in and add value to the practice, who are highly networked, have a lot of relationships and can go out and generate business. A lot of what is involved in this area is actually selling. Relationships are hugely important here. Employers want people who know the CFOs, the Kingspans and the CRHs, because these people are more likely to talk to people they already know.”

Further growth

Professional services firm BDO Ireland has grown its team by 25 per cent in the past year, according to Katharine Byrne, its corporate finance and recovery partner. Further growth is expected this year, she says, with most demand for candidates with three to five years’ post-qualification experience (PQE), particularly in deal or transaction services.

“The key skills required are excellent communication and project management skills, with strong analytical and financial modelling capabilities,” says Byrne.

It’s a similar story at KPMG. “We’re always on the lookout for good talent and increased client demand has been driving this,” says Michele Connolly head of corporate finance at KPMG.

“The skills most in demand are financial-modelling and transaction advisory experience. However, experienced talent at the right level can be hard to find and there is strong competition to attract them. On a further positive note, we see an increasing number of overseas candidates seeking to come and work in Ireland and also Irish expatriates looking to return home.”

A typical progression path for a career in corporate finance includes qualification with one of the Big Four accountancy firms, followed by a couple of years with client exposure, according to Kevin Menton of Paragon Executive Intelligence, a search company.

“The market is more buoyant now, with more activity and more jobs, particularly at mid level. Anyone who has been working with PLC clients is of interest. The more big clients you have worked with, the more market value you have,” says Menton.

“This is because it means you have trained and qualified but you also have the soft skills that are invaluable in this sector. For a career in corporate finance, you need the numerical ability but you also need to be able to do the wining and dining, and be able to relate to people across a range of industry sectors, from farming businesses to PLCs. You have to be a good people person.”

The recruitment market lags the economic cycle slightly. “After seven or eight years of staying put, people are not afraid to move again but employers are slower about raising salaries,” says Menton.

A move in the sector typically nets no more than a 10 per cent increase in salary, he says. Starting salaries for recently qualified personnel run from

45,000 up to between

55,000 and

60,000 for those with at least two years’ post-qualification experience.

“In the downturn, not much recruitment went on but we’ve seen a rebirth over the past few years,” says Martin Reilly, head of corporate finance at Deloitte.

Corporate finance departments include both a ‘growth’ side – deals, transaction services and fundraising – as well as the kind of restructuring activities most prevalent in a downturn. As a result, corporate finance is a career that should provide protection from the cyclical nature of economies. “It can be a ‘hedge’,” says Reilly.

Deloitte’s corporate finance team is made up of 165, up from 75 a few years ago. Of that 165 team, 90 are focused on the growth side, engaged in transaction services and raising funds, for example, while the rest focus on corporate restructuring. Employee numbers here grew 10 per cent both last year and the year before, with all of that increase being on the ‘growth’ side of the house. The team is expected to grow further, by about 15 per cent, this year.

“Over the next three or four years we see a lot of activity set to take place in the Irish market,” says Reilly.

As always in a battle for talent, the importance of being an ‘employer of choice’ comes to the fore. One of the ways in which employers do this is by investing in corporate and social responsibility initiatives. Being a good corporate citizen is seen as particularly important to ‘millennials’ – those currently aged 18 to 35.

“Millennials have a strong sense of identity as a group and CSR is one of the things that matters to them. We facilitate it and they really drive it in the company,” says Reilly.

Corporate finance roles Since mid 2015, a steady flow of corporate finance roles at all levels has resurfaced across the market, according to Estelle Davis, director of Brightwater Group, a recruitment company.

“During the market downturn when deal flow and transactional turnarounds were proving challenging for many firms, many organisations transitioned teams into restructuring, insolvency or advisory work. However, now with the market pick-up and with a four to five year gap to bridge – where companies were last hiring steadily year on year at the entry level up to five years PQE – supply and demand issues are being felt across certain sector specialisms, in particular professionals at this level with strong client-facing engagement skills,” she says.

Demand is coming not just from accounting and corporate advisory firms, but from in-house teams in PLCs and multinationals too. “Most notably aviation lessors, pharmaceutical and high-tech companies seem to be building out again their team as M&As and IPOs are very much on the agenda,” she says.

“Firms looking to hire need to be open to cross-transferable skills and also, if attracting ex pats coming back from the corporate finance sector in the UK, may need to be flexible upwards on the salary budget to attract these individuals.”