A CFO's place is in the IR function

by Catherine Woods - Monday, 22nd October 2007 -

Whether it’s to answer financial questions or to keep your CEO in line, Synchronica CFO Angus Dent insists that a company’s top finance bod should be involved in IR.

Dent says he spends about 20 per cent of his time dealing with IR for the AIM-listed software company (it doesn’t have a dedicated department). But he’s of the opinion that it’s important for CFOs to have an active IR role, regardless.

“There are questions about any company that an investor would expect the CFO to answer and therefore it’s almost impossible, quite honestly, for the CFO not to be involved.”

“CEOs tend to be very forceful people; they’re ploughing a definite furrow and maybe they’re not looking too much to the right and left. It’s good to have another person, and that is often the CFO, to say ‘what he says is right and also it’s reflected in the numbers’.”

Dent also says that the increased complexity of UK accounts (following the introduction of IFRS) has meant that the CFO’s role in IR has become ever-more important.

“An investor has put money into the company and they want to know whether they’re going to get a return so they need access to the CFO, particularly as we go through this change, to have those accounts explained to them.”

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