Seison Reddy

Head of Transacting: SA & International at DBSA

Seison Reddy is currently the Head of Transacting: SA & International at the Development Bank of Southern Africa. He is responsible for managing a team of investment professionals involved in the execution of transactions across the bank’s mandated sectors both within South Africa and the rest of the continent. He has extensive experience in deal structuring, negotiation, due diligence and deal execution within the Development Finance arena having worked and managed business units in local Development Finance Institutions and Private Equity. He is a seasoned Finance Professional with extensive experience in the Financial Services sector, having held Senior Management positions in Structured Lending, Leverage Finance, Corporate Finance and Equity over the past 24 years. His extensive knowledge and experience in due diligence provides him with the unique ability to identify the key fundamental drivers required to make businesses work and how identified risks can be mitigated.

He has recently completed the Harvard Business School’s Senior Executive Program Africa and holds an MBA specializing in Strategic and Corporate Finance. He has been a member of the Institute of Directors for the past 16 years and has completed the Institute of Directors Director level 1, 2 and 3 training. He serves as an Advisory Board member on Private Equity Funds which include Convergence Partners Communications Infrastructure Fund, Vantage Mezzanine Fund and International Housing Solutions Fund. He serves as a Member Trustee of the DBSA Provident Fund and sits on the Investments, Governance and Risk committees. He has in the past served on the boards of investee companies that he has facilitated funding for. He is financially astute, with extensive experience in making sound investment decisions by maximizing return whilst minimizing risk through appropriate risk mitigation strategies.

He has played an integral role in the conceptualization, development and implementation of the Student Housing Infrastructure Program and has overseen the successful implementation of the pilot projects in Fort Hare University, University of Western Cape and Northwest University. These projects were groundbreaking in that they were the first student housing infrastructure built on campus in the last 20 years. Some of these projects that were implementation during Covid 19 were successfully completed on time and within cost despite the impacts of the pandemic. This was testament to his problem-solving ability and rigor in which he managed the sound implementation of these projects through actively participating in monthly steering committees as a funder to these projects. He is an expert in purpose-built student housing and very knowledgeable on the industry. He was a contributor to the market assessment commission by International Finance Corporation on the “The Student Housing Landscape in South Africa”.

He is passionate about the development of SME sector and was responsible for developing a non-financial support strategy for the National Empowerment Fund which sort to supplement finance support with non-financial mechanism to ensure improved bankability of funded projects and further equip entrepreneurs to operate successful and sustainable businesses. He is considered an expert on the SME space given his published MBA dissertation titled “Success criteria for development finance applications for SME’s in South Africa”.

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