Prem Ojha

Managing the $500 million revenue business for the Apollo Group as a finance business partner (commercial).

• North America is the third largest market for Apollo's business, and it is the most focused market in terms of growth.
• Building the team, process, customer bases, and offering to set out a solid footprint for Apollo Tyres in the North America region, which is the biggest market for the tire industry in the world.
• Responsible for managing the finance, accounting, customer service, purchasing, and legal aspects of the business.
• Responsible for setting up various processes, commercial control, and operational resources needed to achieve revenue vision.
• Taking the lead in the digitalization of all processes to achieve faster information flow, keeping SG&A within strict cost control, and integrating with India and European operations seamlessly.
• Managing banking relationships to fund current and expected future needs.
• Ensuring tax and legal compliance is done without failure for North America.
• Re-implemented SAP for the trading business environment in January 2024, and leading the project for the SAP upgrade to S/4HANA.
• Overseeing the financial operation of the LATAM region for all commercial activities, including tax and legal compliance.
• Key member of the team working on the business strategy to set up a full-fledged local operation in LATAM.
• Leading the global finance business partner (commercial) role for the Off Highway Product ("OHT") Line for the Apollo Group.
• Development and implementation of strategy for geographical growth and profit optimization

• Lead the commercial vertical with team size of 18 for an organization having ~1,100 HC and annual turnover of ~€280 Mn/ INR 2,260 crore
• Commercial vertical is responsible for finance and accounts, purchasing (excluding raw materials), payroll, and legal and secretarial activities.
• Established the effective cost control mechanism through budgetary and system control, supported by timely reporting and spontaneous action to observations—one of the best cost control setups within the group.
• Negotiated various long-term, high-value agreements to achieve cost-effective, continuous supply/services.
• Energy: securing energy at a competitive price through a mix of long-term hedging and solar contracts.
• Managed a cash subsidy of approximately €54 million, liaising with authorities, setting up internal processes, and claiming.
• Project funding and working capital management.
• Setting up the department to service the accounting and purchasing needs of other group entities.
• Lead the Apollo Europe finance team journey (for various projects) toward digitalization and automation.
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• Assigned to set up the sales office (in Johannesburg) operation from all commercial aspect where activities can be handed over to operational team
• Receivable management- servicing, insuring, collection, limit setup
• Arranging working capital facility
• Setting up of warehouse, operational activities process
• Building various report for adequate control & information flow for faster decision making

• Primary job was to manage finance & account activities of companies which was having one plant, ~800HC and offtake sales business for most of its capacity
• In late 2014, offtake agreement was terminated which resulted in restructuring of the business i.e
• Closure of manufacturing facility and setting of sale organization
• Restructuring of business involving various legal & administrative process
• Multi-level negotiation with various stakeholders such as labor council, bankers, local municipalities etc
• Management of property & assets sales to the tune of approx
• INR 225 Cr

• Worked with Group corporate strategy team on M&A leading to carving out large portion of business for sale to Sumitomo Japan
• Main contact points for most of the local activities for strategy team and M&A advisor (Big 4)
• Established the carve out financial principle for business identified for sales which was acceptable for buyer
• Worked with lawyer, investment bankers & internal stakeholders to implement the transaction at ground level

• Company Overview: (Previously known as Dunlop Tyres Africa)
• Joined as Manager Finance in 2007 in Dunlop Tyres, Durban
• During the total tenure, worked on various role
• Established new & very effective forex hedging model- South African Rand is one of the most volatile currency hence needed lost of attention to maintain the exposure
• Established the group reporting pack which take care of both IFRS & HU GAAP
• Ran a very tight cash flow scenario business successfully for almost 2 years
• Managed project funding for expansion from foreign bank
• (Previously known as Dunlop Tyres Africa)

• Helped the fiancé team on various taxation, accounting and costing related activities