Global IR reporting structures in 2016 have remained broadly consistent with previous years, according to the IR Magazine Global Investor Relations Practice Report 2016.
The number of IR heads reporting to the CEO and to the CFO have both increased by 1 percentage point to 23 percent and 65 percent, respectively, leaving the number directly reporting to other senior management figures to drop by 2 percentage points to 12 percent.
The numbers reporting to the CFO increase as cap size increases. Half of IR heads at small-cap companies report to the CFO; this increases to nearly two thirds (65 percent) at mid-cap companies, 71 percent at large-cap companies and to more than three quarters (76 percent) at mega-caps.
More than a third of small-cap IR heads report to the CEO. The likelihood of IR reporting directly to the company boss decreases incrementally through the cap sizes to the point where only one in 10 IR heads at mega-cap companies does so.
There has, however, been a revival of this practice at large-cap companies. For the past two years reporting to the CEO has been more likely at mega-caps than at large-cap companies but, in 2016, 17 percent of large-cap respondents report to the CEO – a rise of 5 percentage points from 2015.
That said, large-cap IR heads are still more than four times as likely to report to the CFO as to the CEO.
