(1) Where the annual financial statements are to be audited by a statutory auditor, the report on the relations of the company with affiliated enterprises is to be submitted to the statutory auditor concurrently with the annual financial statements and the management report. The statutory auditor is to audit whether:
1. the statements as to fact made in the report are accurate,
2. the performance of the company was excessive in the case of the legal transactions set out in the report, based on the circumstances known at the point in time at which the legal transactions were entered into; if it was excessive, whether the disadvantages have been compensated,
3. any circumstances regarding the measures set out in the report give rise to an assessment substantially different from that of the management board.
Section 320 (1) sentence 2 and (2) sentences 1 and 2 of the Commercial Code applies accordingly. The statutory auditor has the rights governed by this provision also in relation to a group member company as well as in relation to a controlled or controlling enterprise.
(2) The statutory auditor is to report in writing on the results of the audit. Should the statutory auditor establish, in auditing the annual financial statements, the management report and the report on the relations of the company with affiliated enterprises, that this report is incomplete, they are to report on this fact as well. The statutory auditor is to sign their report and submit it to the supervisory board; prior to so forwarding the report, the management board is to be given the opportunity to state its position.
(3) Where, according to the conclusive result of the audit, no exception is to be taken, the statutory auditor is to confirm this fact by adding the following audit report to the report on the relations of the company with affiliated enterprises:
Following my / our audit and judgment, performed in keeping with my / our professional duties, I / we hereby confirm that:
1. the statements as to fact made in the report are accurate,
2. the performance by the company under the legal transactions set out in the report was not excessive or that the disadvantages have been compensated,
3. no circumstances regarding the measures set out in the report give rise to an assessment substantially different from that of the management board.
Where the report does not set out any legal transaction, then no. 2 is to be left out of the certificate; where the report does not list any measure, then no. 3 is to be left out. Where the statutory auditor has not established for any of the legal transactions set out in the report that the performance of the company was excessive, then no. 2 of the audit report is to be limited to that confirmation.
(4) Where exception is to be taken, or where the statutory auditor has established that the report on the relations of the company with affiliated enterprises is incomplete, the statutory auditor is to qualify the audit report or is to refuse to issue it. Where the management board itself has declared that the company has suffered a disadvantage by certain legal transactions or measures, without these disadvantages having been compensated, then this is to be stated in the audit report and the audit report is to be limited to the remaining legal transactions or measures.
(5) The statutory auditor is to sign the audit report providing the place and date. The audit report also is to be included in the report on the audit.