Pursuant to § 315d and § 289f of the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch, “HGB”), listed German stock corporations (Aktiengesellschaften) must prepare a corporate governance declaration. This declaration includes the declaration of conformity with the German Corporate Governance Code, and presents the corporate governance practices and the working principles of the management and the Supervisory Board and its committees. The corporate governance declaration is published online at https://aktie.bvb.de/eng/Corporate-Governance/Corporate-Governance-Declaration.*
In accordance with the statutory requirements, Deloitte GmbH Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft has neither substantively audited the cross-references nor the information to which the cross-references refer.