Accounting and Financial Statement Auditing
The Annual General Meeting selected KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft as auditor for the annual financial statements and consolidated financial statements. In the audit assignment awarded to the auditor of the annual financial statements by the Audit Committee an agreement has also been reached on adherence to the provisions set out in No. 7.2.1 (2) (information on grounds for exclusion and disqualification due to impairment of the auditor’s independence) and 7.2.3 (report on major findings) GCGC. We prepare the annual financial statements of Vonovia SE in accordance with the German Commercial Code (HGB) and the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG) and the consolidated financial statements in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) to be applied in the EU. In addition, we prepare a combined management report as required by the German Commercial Code and the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG). The Management Board is responsible for financial accounting. The Supervisory Board examines and adopts or approves the annual financial statements, the consolidated financial statements and the combined management report.
In addition to our annual financial statements, we also prepare interim statements for the first and third quarters as well as an interim financial report for the first half-year in accordance with the German Securities Trading Act.
Both the interim statements and the interim financial report are presented to, and discussed with, the Audit Committee of the Supervisory Board before they are published.
Under German stock corporation and commercial law, there are special requirements for internal risk management that apply to Vonovia. Therefore, our risk management system covers risk inventory, analysis, handling and limitation. In accordance with Section 317 (4) of the German Commercial Code applicable to listed companies, KPMG assesses in its audit the risk early warning system as part of the risk management system.
Furthermore, we maintain standard documentation of all our internal control mechanisms throughout the Group and continually evaluate their effectiveness. Our auditor has not reported any material weaknesses in the accounting-related internal control system detected in its audit to the Management Board and the Supervisory Board.
In the combined management report, we provide comprehensive information on the main features of the internal control and risk management system with regard to the accounting process and the Group accounting process in accordance with our reporting duties pursuant to Sections 289 (4) and 315 (4) of the German Commercial Code.