Financial Economist/ Corporate Finance Specialist
Our aim for PR24 is to align the interests of companies and investors with those of customers, so that the sector is attractive to investors - but companies can only earn high returns from great performance.
Companies will in early 2025 decide whether to accept our final determinations or appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for a redetermination. As a member of the Risk & Return team, the successful candidate will play a key role in assisting Ofwat in responding to the CMA panel's enquiries. This will involve explaining Ofwat's judgments and policy decisions, and scrutinising disputing companies' alternative proposals.
Once the PR24 appeals process is concluded there are several workstreams to which financial issues are highly relevant, and which we expect would be a good match for the successful candidate:
1. Major Projects: Providing support on financing issues for new delivery models to commission large infrastructure projects outside of the price review process.
2. Financial Resilience: Supporting Ofwat's ongoing programme to monitor companies' financial health; identifying and seeking to resolve areas of fragility.
3. PR29: Shaping policy around financing issues for the forthcoming price review governing the 2030-35 period.
We expect the successful candidate to initially focus within a particular area within the Risk & Return workstream (i.e. allowed return estimation for CMA appeals). There are however likely to be opportunities to contribute to other areas of the team, particularly where unanticipated pressures call for redeployment of resources.
In this role you will be expected to:
1. Plan and prioritise your time - working to team-level and directorate-level milestones, and where new developments may require a change of course.
2. Interpret and summarise financial arguments and analysis – for instance from company consultant reports and papers they reference.
3. Conduct and commission financial analysis – for instance drawing on data to calculate ranges and point estimates for components of the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), drawing on support from Ofwat's consultants and other stakeholders where appropriate.
4. Draft slide packs and documents – for instance drafting a chapter for publication covering a policy area for submissions to the CMA panel for appeals, or an internal slide pack/note explaining options for addressing a particular financial issue.
5. Verbally present findings – for instance briefing the team's Director on the key findings of review work or analysis.
6. Develop and interrogate Excel-based models – while not primarily a modelling role, it will likely involve some scrutiny of non-Ofwat models and may involve having a hand in developing in-house models to support our policy areas.
7. Oversee junior staff time – while not primarily a management role, it may at points involve managing the time of a more junior colleague or consultant.
8. Build relationships – in particular with Risk & Return team members, and other Ofwat teams where there is thematic overlap, and external stakeholders such as counterparts in other regulators.
9. Develop skills – to build on your existing base of financial knowledge and skills through taking on structured or unstructured learning opportunities.
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