Business Finance Analyst - SEAA

Job Mission:

In order to deliver a competitive advantage to our company, Business Finance function needs to be agile and dynamic, founded on insights from advanced analytics and tools, proactive business partnering with the aim to influence strategic decision where possible.

With the ever changing business environment and technologies, there have been significant changes in the role of the Business Finance function, as it pivots towards a more predictive and analytical future as opposed to descriptive analysis.

We shall no longer just report the news but help making the news. Connect the internal and external insights and proactively drive and shape the governance of the local, regional or global agendas for business discussions.

Our job is to provide Smart Analytics that can be turned into actionable insights and enables management to effectively solve their business problems. Smart analytics are:

• · Relevant: it makes a difference, especially with regard to making predictions
• · Timely: it's relevant now
• · Faithful: it's complete, neutral, and error-free
• · Verifiable: it can be replicated and verified
• · Actionable: it' true to what it claims to represent and is deemed beneficial to the user
• · Understandable: it's quickly comprehensible by those familiar with the situation

Our role will be multifunctional: performed as Risk professionals, BI experts, Managers driving on risk management, Modelers, Idea-generators and Business Partners working side-by-side, creating synergetic teams with strategic vision and enormous analytical capabilities.

Business Skills & Leadership Attributes

• · Agile: The position would need to work independently and be comfortable with complexity and ambiguity. Be curious to find out what we don’t know, a proactive and continuous learner.
• · Relationships-focused: Be collaborative with various teams including finance, business and other corporate functions at local, regional and global. Proactively provide solutions and supports to stakeholders

Key Responsibilities: ·

• Support the Regional Business Finance Manager, with matrix reporting to the Regional Senior Real Estate Manager, as the finance partner for Corporate Functions specializing in Real Estate Portfolio Management and CAPEX analysis ·
• Operate at the intersection of Finance, Real Estate, retail strategy and brand vision, translating lease, project, market and financial data into clear, actionable insights for senior leadership. ·
• Strengthen decision-making by ensuring financial assumptions, KPIs, governance and reporting are robust, consistent and aligned with portfolio priorities.

Financial & Investment Analysis

• Build and maintain detailed financial models to evaluate new locations, lease renewals, renovations, expansions, closures and other portfolio decisions · Support Capex analysis, Capex policy application and governance for boutique and other real estate-related projects. ·
• Provide rigorous financial analysis and investment recommendations for real estate projects, partnering with Real Estate and Business Finance teams to challenge assumptions, assess risks and opportunities, and support informed portfolio decisions and leadership approvals. ·

Portfolio Management, Data Governance & Reporting ·

• Manage the regional real estate portfolio database and reporting ecosystem, ensuring robust data governance, accuracy and process discipline across SEAA markets. ·
• Drive portfolio analytics and executive reporting, providing visibility on occupancy costs, lease commitments, project movements, financial impact and key business risks. ·
• Partner with Real Estate, Business Finance, Finance Operations and market stakeholders to enhance data quality, reporting efficiency and digital capabilities, while ensuring compliance with portfolio governance standards. ·
• Support informed portfolio decision-making through consolidated dashboards, performance reviews and actionable insights for regional leadership.

Market & Site Evaluation ​

• Analyze SEAA retail market trends, luxury environment dynamics, customer traffic patterns, and competitive distribution to identify market opportunities and positioning implications. ·
• Benchmark key competitors, including store footprint, store size, network presence, and business performance, to support market and site evaluation. ·
• Track comparable lease transactions, market rents, landlord terms, and key commercial benchmarks to inform negotiation strategy and investment assumptions.
• · Monitor landlord developments, future retail supply, and emerging site opportunities, partnering with the Regional Senior Real Estate Manager to support site selection analysis and recommendations.

Strategic Planning ·

• Conduct ad hoc research on emerging luxury retail destinations, mixed-use developments, and expansion opportunities ·
• Prepare materials for board-level and executive presentations on portfolio strategy ·
• Build strong working relationships across Real Estate, Regional Business Finance, local Business Finance, Finance leadership, Boutique and Retail Architecture & Sustainability

Role Specifications: 

Academic / Professional Qualifications

• University degree in Finance, Real Estate, Economics, Business, or related field required
• Solid knowledge of accounting / financial concepts and principles

Work Experience

• 8-10 years of experience in real estate, retail expansion, corporate real estate, investment analysis, commercial finance, FP&A, or related fields, with the ability to evaluate opportunities through both commercial and financial lenses.
• Strong analytical and financial modelling skills, with experience developing business cases, investment analyses, and executive-level recommendations to support strategic decision-making.
• Proven track record of managing multiple projects and partnering across business, finance, operations, and external stakeholders; experience in luxury retail, fashion, hospitality, consumer, or commercial real estate is an advantage.

Required Competencies

• Strong communication and analytical skills
• Agile, commercial curiosity and business acumen
• Strong Excel skills required, or other big data querying languages and  Proficiency with real estate/lease management platforms (e.g., Sequentra, Lucernex, VTS, Costar) would be an advantage
• A genuine interest in learning systems and becoming a ‘power user’
• Comfortable aggregating and manipulating large data sets from multiple systems to derive insightful analysis and create financial models
• Strong interpreter of data
• Attention to details
• Innovative
• Personality types that thrive on new ideas and creative thinking, rather than just number crunching