Beyond bean counting
Article Date: Feb 01 2007Chris Bunning, finance director of Weybridge-based Property Investment Holdings, spells out what the position nowadays involves for a private company with £60 million of industrial, retail and office assets. ‘I have someone else to do the book keeping,’ he explains. ‘My role is to work with the four-strong management team on property acquisitions and disposals and arranging funding.’
Bunning takes part in decision-making on whether to buy one building or sell another, and lends a helping hand to surveyors on key valuations. ‘I’m engaged in the legal, tax and financing issues involved,’ he says. ‘You can get good bean counters for £25,000 a year, so I have someone who does the nitty-gritty, right up to regular management accounts, which I then present.’
Tough decisions
It’s not all teamwork, however. As finance director, Bunning and his predecessor have shouldered the burden of decisions on hedging future interest rates, which have had a significant impact on the company’s fortunes. ‘In 2003 my predecessor took a real gamble,’ he recalls, ‘and in 2005 I took another one, locking in our rate on £27 million of loans from two banks at 4.5 per cent for ten years.’ With rates now on the rise,
the deal is saving the company money, which Bunning understatedly admits is ‘rather pleasing’.
Jonathan Kamaluddin, finance director at online fashion retailer ASOS, also argues that the finance director’s role has become more commercial than ever. ‘My day works out as 50 per cent of time spent on management and business strategy and 50 per
cent undertaking traditional finance director’s tasks,’ he says. ‘I have a team to ensure all the numbers are done and make regular checks and balances, and I can easily review their work and see that it is all right. I’ve got a good team together and I have “upskilled” them so that they know how to ask the right questions.’
Assuming more risk
Kamaluddin, a trained accountant who admits his own ambition is eventually to become the chief executive officer somewhere, says he has to handle legal and regulatory issues, such as when ASOS outsourced its warehouse operations, or insurance, such as when a fuel depot exploded. ‘As the finance director’s role becomes commercial and operational there’s a risk that you neglect accounts, management accounts and so on,’ he reflects.
‘I have been careful not to let that slip,’ he continues. ‘Finance directors must remember that they are responsible for the numbers. Only when that side is working can you go on to the more strategic issues.’
As commercial pressures mount, it becomes particularly important to watch out for the possibility that taking a more commercial, proactive finance management role – as pursued by Carroll and Bunning – turns into potentially risky financial speculation.
Carroll recalls seeking to ‘optimise the total returns on the balance sheet’ when at the Halifax. ‘We matched assets and liabilities to derive incremental gains,’ he says. ‘And at a property company such as Eatonfield we might decide to hedge against rising interest rates and would have the opportunity to take short-term gains as rates rose. But we would draw a strong line between doing that and sheer speculation.’
