The Supervisory Board advises the Management Board in its strategic planning and projects. It decides on the matters assigned to it by law, the Articles of Association and its rules of procedure. The Supervisory Board is responsible for supervising the management of the Company by the Management Board. It is made up of nine shareholder representatives.
A Committee for Board Affairs has been appointed to handle the relationship between the Company and the members of its Management Board relating to employment and salary; this committee also acts as the Nominating and Remuneration Committee. The Committee for Board Affairs dealt with legal employment formalities concerning the members of the Management Board and with questions relating to remuneration policy and succession planning at its two meetings in 2015.
The Working Committee of the Supervisory Board is called upon to make decisions only if the urgency of the matter means that the decision cannot wait until the next meeting of the Supervisory Board. It is the Chairman’s responsibility to assess the urgency of the matter. The decisions passed must be reported in the next meeting of the Supervisory Board. Generally, the Working Committee can make decisions on any issue that is the responsibility of the Supervisory Board but this does not include issues of particular importance or matters that must be decided upon by the full Supervisory Board by law. The Working Committee did not convene for any meetings in 2015. It made one decision by way of circular resolution.
The Audit Committee of the Supervisory Board performs the duties assigned to it by law. The Audit Committee convened for three meetings, which were also attended by the auditor of the (consolidated) financial statements. The meetings discussed all the documents relating to the financial statements, the Corporate Governance Report and the appropriation of profit proposed by the Management Board. Furthermore, the audit of the 2015 financial statements of the companies of the consolidated group was planned and the auditor reported on the results of preliminary audits. In particular, the Audit Committee was provided on a quarterly basis with the reports of the Internal Auditing department concerning audit areas and material findings based on the audits conducted.
Finally, the Investment Committee advises the Management Board with regard to its investment policy; it has no decision-making authority. The Investment Committee held four meetings at which the members discussed the capital investment strategy, questions concerning capital structure and the focus of risk and asset liability management.
The various chairmen of the committees informed the members of the Supervisory Board about the meetings and the work of the respective committees. For information concerning the activities of the Supervisory Board and its committees, please also refer to the details in the Report of the Supervisory Board.
