Upon recommendation of the audit committee, the Supervisory Board proposed to appoint RSM Ebner Stolz GmbH & Co. KG, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, Hamburg, as auditor of the financial statements and the consolidated financial statements for the financial year 2024.

In accordance with the procedure set out in article 16 para. 2 EU Statutory Audit Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on specific requirements regarding statutory audit of public-interest entities and repealing Commission Decision 2005/909/EC, hereinafter “Regulation (EU) No 537/2014”), the audit committee of the Supervisory Board recommended RSM Ebner Stolz GmbH & Co. KG, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, Hamburg, and KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft, Berlin, and expressed a justified preference for RSM Ebner Stolz GmbH & Co. KG, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, Hamburg, already in 2023. The audit committee upholds this recommendation.

The audit committee has declared that its recommendation is free from undue influence by third parties and that no clause of the type referred to in article 16 para. 6 EU Statutory Audit Regulation has been imposed on it (Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on specific requirements regarding statutory audit of publicinterest entities and repealing Commission Decision 2005/909/EC). RSM Ebner Stolz GmbH & Co. KG, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, Hamburg, has declared to the Supervisory Board that no business, financial, personal or other relationships, which could give rise to doubts about its independence, exist between it, its corporate bodies and audit managers on the one hand and the Company and the members of its corporate bodies on the other hand.