Companies may replace their regular annual financial statements

In order to fulfll certain requirements for publication and reporting,
companies may replace their regular annual financial statements
with annual financial statements prepared in accordance with
IFRS.

This will allow these companies to compete on an equal
footing for financial resources on international capital markets. For
the assessment of dividends and for tax fling purposes, annual
financial statements must, however, continue to be prepared in
accordance with the principles of German commercial law.