Strategic Investments & M&A Associate

Job Description

Senior Analyst, Group Strategic Investments and M&A | FWD Group

The Tone:
This is a full-time role at FWD Group, a pan-Asian life and health insurance business serving approximately 40 million customers across 10 markets. FWD Group, established in 2013, operates with a customer-led and tech-enabled approach, aiming to deliver innovative propositions, easy-to-understand products, and a simpler insurance experience. This Senior Analyst position is crucial for the Group Strategic Investments and M&A team, directly supporting the assessment and execution of strategically important transactions across the Asia region, including M&A, partnerships, joint ventures, and strategic investments, thereby contributing to FWD Group’s vision of changing how people feel about insurance.

The TL;DR
• Role: Early Career
• Location: In-person
• Team: Group Strategic Investments & M&A team
• Mission: To provide essential support for the assessment and execution of strategically important inorganic activities, ensuring robust decision-making and successful transaction outcomes for the Group across Asia.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Support Strategic Transactions: Provide comprehensive support on the assessment of strategically important transactions for the Group across the entire Asia region, covering M&A, partnerships, joint ventures, and strategic investments, aligning with FWD’s growth objectives.
• Execute Inorganic Activities: Play a key supportive role in the execution of various inorganic activities throughout the year, including mergers, acquisitions, strategic investments, strategic joint ventures, bancassurance partnerships, restructuring, and divestment across different markets.
• Drive Financial Analysis and Approvals: Contribute to a range of responsibilities including building detailed business cases, coordinating due diligence processes, driving robust valuation and financial models, and supporting the preparation of presentations and approval materials to facilitate timely and well-informed decision-making.
• Prepare Transaction Documents: Take responsibility for preparing critical transaction materials, which include drafting bid letters, compiling management meeting materials, and organizing all necessary transaction documentations to ensure smooth process flow.
• Conduct Market Analysis and Monitoring: Drive and participate in thorough industry analysis to generate insights that will directly impact FWD’s overall strategy concerning inorganic activities, and be responsible for the ongoing development of market and competitor monitoring and knowledge databases.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Hold a Bachelor’s or master’s degree in finance, economics, business, or related fields from an accredited university.
• Experience: Possess 3 to 4 years of relevant working experience, obtained from in-house insurance M&A, corporate development, actuarial functions, financial services consulting, management consulting, or transaction advisory backgrounds.
• Skills: Demonstrate strong analytical, financial modelling/valuation, and corporate finance skills, coupled with excellent written and verbal communication abilities, and a collaborative, proactive mindset with strong relationship-building capabilities.
• Bonus: An actuarial background is a plus, as is a candidate who has or is on the path to a professional qualification such as CFA, Qualified Actuary, or CPA. Knowledge and experience across Asian insurance markets is preferred, along with bilingual fluency in English and Chinese.