internship report

An internship is an opportunity for students to apply theory learned in class to practice. This opportunity is beneficial to students who want to gain in the corporate world through presenting them with real work experience. The intern is doing her practice at KPMG from 24th June to 24th September, 2018 at the deal advisory unit. The well reputed company has several branches across the globe and offers services in relation to audit, tax and Zakat and advisory. Their objective is to build and offer professional services by building trust among clients. KPMG in Saudi Arabia continues to significantly invest in its Advisory practice. This investment is reflected in the breadth of services provided to companies, intermediaries and public sector bodies in key areas such as deal advisory, risk consulting and management consulting and real estate. The company assists clients to address many urgent strategic and operational challenges in the current business environment. Over the last five years KPMG has been the leading company in providing professional services in Saudi Arabia. The company has three offices in the Kingdom located at Jeddah, Riyadh, and Al Khobar and has employed more than 823 people. The main responsibility of KPMG is to challenge its customers to view themselves as well as their market in a different perspective. The primary objective of KPMG is to sustain and enhance a quality professional workforce. The organization is a major contributor of international capital markets by supporting reforms that reinforces social responsibility and markets credibility. KPMG clients include public sector agencies, business corporations, nonprofit organizations and governments. The major investment made by KPMG was to invest in its people and through hard work and support of their clients they have nourished in the business. Trust and integrity have been core features in ensuring that firm continues to be the leading company which offers audit, tax and Zakat and advisory

Introduction

Internships offer several benefits to students and graduates. Through training offered in companies, students broaden their knowledge and experience and gain an upper hand in obtaining employment after school. Internships offer flavor for what to expect in a job situation and trainees build better resumes. It is also an opportunity to interact and meet new people who can act as mentors toward career goals. As such, interns should take advantage of the benefits offered and expand their ideologies in corporate background.

· To gain practical knowledge in conducting business activities in an actual working environment so as to be familiar with real job experience.

· Another objective is to interact with other team members within the financial institution in order to create meaningful relations.

· To gain better knowledge in analytical skills in a real job environment so as to gain valuable skills in employment such as communications and attention to details.

· Gain exposure to working environment and employer expectations in professional deal financing and corporate accounts.

· To enrich the trainees experience and improve the skills required to through a structured training program.

· The training program focuses on improving the and examine the trainee’s behavioral, business, soft and analytical skills

· This course provides the opportunity to gain knowledge through actual job experience in the profession. Internships represent job experience which is aimed at supplementing the classroom learning process and to allow familiarization with real world experiences related to the Banking and Finance profession. The internship program period covers 180 hours of working experience applied at a bank or a related financial institution locally or internationally.

The duration of the internship is three months running from 24th June to 24th September. The internship was conducted at KPMG Al Fozan & Partners in Zahran Business Center starting from 9am and ending at 6pm. I was based in the corporate finance and real estate division under the deal advisory department.

KPMG operates as a global network of independent member firms offering audit, tax and advisory services; working closely with clients, helping them to mitigate risks and grasp opportunities. Member firms' clients include business corporations, governments and public sector agencies and not-for-profit organizations. They look to KPMG for a consistent standard of service based on high order professional capabilities, industry insight and local knowledge. KPMG member firms can be found in 155 countries. Collectively they employ more than 183,965 people across a range of disciplines.

To be the best in everything we do, turning out experience and industry knowledge into value for clients.

To be your clear choice of professional services firm by attracting and keeping the best people, winning the best mandates, doing the best work for the clients and being the most trusted firm.

Sustaining and enhancing the quality of this professional workforce is KPMG's primary objective. Wherever we operate we want our firms to be no less than the professional employers of choice. We contribute to the effective functioning of international capital markets. We support reforms that strengthen the markets' credibility and their social responsibility. We believe that similar reform must extend to the professional realm. KPMG in Saudi Arabia was established through its member firm KPMG Al Fozan& Partners and has operated in the Kingdom since 1992.This early commitment to the Saudi Arabian market, together with our unwavering focus on quality, has been the foundation of our accumulated industry experience, and is reflected in our appointment by some of the Kingdom’s most prestigious companies.

As Saudi Arabian businesses join the global economy and international companies seek to enter the Saudi market, KPMG’s blend of international expertise and local knowledge makes us well positioned to serve our clients in this increasingly complex, but exciting market. KPMG operates through a national leadership with dedicated regional teams, which enables our network of professional talent, our technologies and our products and solutions to quickly come together to meet clients’ needs.

KPMG has made a significant investment in Saudi Arabia over the last five years with a number of professional staff being seconded to the local firm from across the global network. The firm has grown to be one of the largest professional service providers in the Kingdom. During the last few years, it has achieved record growth, reaching our current workforce of more than 823 people across the Kingdom, based in three offices in Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar. KPMG’s objective is to be the best in everything we do, turning our experience and industry knowledge into value for our clients.

KPMG member firms provide Audit, Tax and Advisory services, delivering a globally consistent set of multidisciplinary financial and accounting capabilities based on deep industry knowledge. They work for a wide range of clients, from global organization to entrepreneurial start-ups. Our focus on Global Industries helps us to develop a rich understanding of our clients' businesses, together with the insight, skills and resources required to address industry-specific issues and opportunities. Our role is to challenge clients to look at themselves and their markets in new ways. We believe we are ideally placed to serve you and provide the professional services you need. We believe to be the ideal choice for you in Saudi Arabia for the following reasons:   

· Our position as a principal provider of audit and advisory services to global and regional clients

· The quality and experience of our people

· Our in-depth understanding of your industry

· Our value added deliverables

· The provision of excellent value for money

KPMG‘s Government and Public Sector divisions work to deliver meaningful results through a deep understanding of the issues, an intimate appreciation of how the public sector works, and global and local insight into the cultural, social and political environment.

Integrity, quality and independence are the building blocks of KPMG’s approach. Our audit process does more than assess financial information. It enables our professionals to consider the unique elements of the business – its culture, the industry in which it competes, competitive pressures and the inherent risks. Main services for the audit department are financial statement Audit, Reporting Accountant services and other assurance services.

The Zakat & Tax at KPMG in Saudi Arabia comprises of highly qualified international and Saudi nationals with extensive local and international experience.

Our professionals have more than 80 years of combined experience in Saudi Arabian Zakat and Tax law and regulations. We believe that our team of professionals and our understanding of Saudi Zakat and Tax law, regulations and practice help us deliver quality service to clients. Their main services under the tax department are international tax, domestic & Zakat, corporate services and indirect tax  

KPMG Advisory professionals work with you to cut through the complexity of today’s rapidly changing marketplace. We leverage the knowledge and skills across our global network of firms to develop practical recommendations designed to help you work smarter, grow faster and compete stronger. We are trusted advisors to the world’s organizations. They choose us because we are known for our talented people, technical expertise, deep industry insights and our ability to get the job done.

KPMG is aligned along five industry groups:

A. Capital Markets

· Financial services

· Banking

· Insurance

· Investment Management

B. Industrial markets:

· Energy & Natural Resources (Chemicals & performance technologies, mining, oil and gas, power & utilities)

· Automotive

· Industrial manufacturing

· Life Sciences (previously pharmaceuticals)

C. Consumer markets:

· Food & Drink

· Consumer Goods

· Retail

D. Technology, Media& Telecommunications:

· Telecommunications

· Technology

· Media

E. Infrastructure, Government & Healthcare

· Government & public sector Both “Level & Focus Area”

· Building & construction

· Transport & Leisure

· Healthcare

· Professional & Business Services

Deal Advisory Department

Deal advisory department has five sections which deal with buying of a business, selling of a business, partnering, funding a business and fixing a business. KPMG helps its clients in adding and preserving value to opportunities. The firm’s specialist merges a local experience and global mindset with high knowledge together with analytic tools to assist their clients in navigating complex and fragmented process.

Deal advisory entails guiding clients on how to add value to their businesses as well as initial concepts of obtaining enterprises and turning them around in times of recession. At department, advisors identify transactions and assist clients in evaluating and implementing these transactions so as to generate profits. An integrated team of specialists enable speeding up of deals during acquisition and lifecycle to helps customers to find value and secure deals. Being that businesses are under pressure to deliver lasting and improved result by stakeholders, it is important to think like an investor.

Deal department assists clients in thinking like an investor by helping them see immediate and future challenges of an enterprise and assisting them in driving strategic changes and making the right decisions at the right time. This is achieved through a combination of deep industry knowledge, analytical tools and having a global and local mindset to obtain results. The department engages in market research to validate the assumptions of the client with the market to build the appropriate financial models while maintaining accuracy.

Corporate Finance Function:

Real Estate Function:

The main purpose of the real estate function is to advice Clients on their real estate assets (M&As, business valuations, Highest & Best Use “HBU” recommendations) assist the Clients in preparing financial feasibility studies and carrying out market research. I observed and discussed one of Real Estate team’s Project with a Senior Associate working in Real Estate team. KPMG’s scope of work for the Project was to conduct Highest and Best Use analysis on Client’s land located in city Jeddah. Lands are broadly categorized into residential, commercial and hospitality. Our team conducted a site analysis to determine the demand drivers and the level of competition around this particular area. Several programs were used in order to gather accurate data’s about the population density around the area. This study was based on distance to nearest attractions in Jeddah. However, we shifted our focus to the lands that has the same shape and size of our site for better comparison in terms of quality, sales and prices. We carried out sensitivity analysis on the Land site by applying different modes of property including commercial and residential properties. Based on our primary research and analysis we provided our Client with the Highest and Best Use recommendation for the Land.

The main challenge experienced at the deal advisory department is low account receivables due to delayed payment by clients. This is attributed to low profitability of clients’ businesses and slow picking up of acquired entities within the market. As such the department should ensure that customers are rated and charged immediately after services are rendered and not after the results of the deals are observed. Another challenge faced by the department is few customer turnouts which subsequently causes low account receivables. Few customers are attributed to poor marketing of the department such that people are not aware that the company offers this service. In order to correct this, the department should alert the marketing division concerning proper advertising and promotion of advisory services.

Sometimes, clients have incomplete documents and lack of proper information such as financial statements of their businesses. This poses a challenge in carrying out the required scope of work agreed with the Clients. Teams within the unit advice the business owners to commence proper documentation and conduct prior visits to the business units to ascertain existence. Additionally, before any technical work gets sent to the client, approval must be sought from the senior in charge or the manager. Printing the documents and receiving all of the approvals takes time and effort that could have been done finishing other tasks. A new online system has been launched but is not fully operative which makes the process faster. Once a job is done by an intern or entry level person, a notification gets sent to the next person in charge to make adjustments and review online.

Another challenge is high confidentiality and accuracy of the information. Posting the wrong name of a client or firm with only a small difference can create financial and legal implications for the company. Moreover, financial papers should be terminated properly to reduce leakage of information. Besides this employees are not allowed to discuss any work matter with family or friends in order to maintain confidentiality.

Conclusion

In conclusion, KPMG Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest companies providing Audit, Consultancy and Tax services and with a large client base. Trainees under the firm gain a lot of knowledge and technical expertise. Under the intern program, students are able to relate what they learn in university with real time job experience and skills in accounting and advisory. The program is beneficial to interns since the employees are helpful and thoughtful. Besides this, the integrated program consists of training programs, counselors and friends who together assist the intern to be fully exposed to necessary operations.