7. Reporting and Audit of the Annual Financial Statements
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7.1 |
Reporting
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| 7.1.1 |
Shareholders and third parties are mainly informed by the Consolidated Financial Statements. During the financial year they are additionally informed by means of a half-year financial report and, in the first and second halves, by interim reports or quarterly financial reports. The Consolidated Financial Statements and the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements in the half-year financial report and the quarterly financial report are prepared under observance of internationally recognised accounting principles.
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| 7.1.2 |
The Consolidated Financial Statements must be prepared by the Management Board and examined by the auditor and Supervisory Board.
Half-year and any quarterly financial reports shall be discussed with the Management Board by the Supervisory Board or its Audit Committee prior to publication. In addition, the Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel and the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority are authorized to check that the Consolidated Financial Statements comply with the applicable accounting regulations (enforcement). The Consolidated Financial Statements shall be publicly accessible within 90 days of the end of the financial year; interim reports shall be publicly accessible within 45 days of the end of the reporting period.
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| 7.1.3 |
The Corporate Governance Report shall contain information on stock option programmes and similar securities-based incentive systems of the company.
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| 7.1.4 |
The company shall publish a list of third party companies in which it has a shareholding that is not of minor importance for the enterprise. The trading portfolios of banks and financial services companies, on which voting rights are not exercised, are disregarded in this context. The following shall be provided: name and headquarters of the company, the amount of the shareholding, the amount of equity and the operating result of the past financial year.
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| 7.1.5 |
Notes on the relationships with shareholders considered to be "related parties" pursuant to the applicable accounting regulations shall be provided in the Consolidated Financial Statements.
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| 7.2 |
Audit of Annual Financial Statements
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| 7.2.1 |
Prior to submitting a proposal for election, the Supervisory Board or, respectively, the Audit Committee shall obtain a statement from the proposed auditor stating whether, and where applicable, which business, financial, personal and other relationships exist between the auditor and its executive bodies and head auditors on the one hand, and the enterprise and the members of its executive bodies on the other hand, that could call its independence into question. This statement shall include the extent to which other services were performed for the enterprise in the past year, especially in the field of consultancy, or which are contracted for the following year.
The Supervisory Board shall agree with the auditor that the Chairman of the Supervisory Board will be informed immediately of any grounds for disqualification or impartiality occurring during the audit, unless such grounds are eliminated immediately.
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| 7.2.2 |
The Supervisory Board commissions the auditor to carry out the audit and concludes an agreement on the latter's fee.
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| 7.2.3 |
The Supervisory Board shall arrange for the auditor to report without delay on all facts and events of importance for the tasks of the Supervisory Board which arise during the performance of the audit.
The Supervisory Board shall arrange for the auditor to inform it and/or note in the Auditor's Report if, during the performance of the audit, the auditor comes across facts which show a misstatement by the Management Board and Supervisory Board on the Code.
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| 7.2.4 |
The auditor takes part in the Supervisory Board's deliberations on the Annual Financial Statements and Consolidated Financial Statements and reports on the essential results of its audit.
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convenience translation |
