ANNUAL REPORT 2011 A.S. CRÉATION TAPETEN AG

GROUP MANAGEMENT REPORT
52
accounting firms as possible. Accordingly, the
financial statements of ten of the eleven Group
companies were audited or reviewed by KPMG
in 2011. On the other hand, the internal control
systems of the Group companies (and, hence,
those that are used in the accounting process)
are regularly reviewed by external specialists
with a view to refining and updating the processes.
The Supervisory Board of A.S. Création
Tapeten AG – in particular its Audit Committee –
is involved in the evaluation of the results of
these reviews.
To prepare the consolidated financial statements,
the Group companies’ financial statements are
transferred into the Group accounting system
and complemented with additional information
to form a reporting package. This standardised
reporting package is defined by A.S. Création
Tapeten AG for all Group companies and used
not only for the financial statements but also
for monthly reporting. The data from the
reporting packages is transferred via an interface
to the consolidation system in which the
consolidated financial statements of A.S. Création
are prepared. The consolidated financial statements
and the consolidated presentations of
the Wallpaper and Furnishing Fabrics Divisions
are produced centrally. To ensure that consistent
and standardised valuation criteria are applied,
key parameters such as the discounting factor
for the calculation of pension provisions are
predefined centrally by A.S. Création Tapeten AG.
For the same reason, the goodwill impairment
tests are also performed centrally.
At Group level, the internal control systems
used to ensure proper Group accounting primarily
comprise plausibility and completeness
checks of the reporting packages received. Whenever
required, representatives of A.S. Création
Tapeten AG attend the final meetings with the
auditors of the Group companies. In addition,
controls of the main consolidation processes –
e.g. debt, income and expenses, capital - are
integrated in the software used. Finally, the
consolidated financial statements (and the
financial statements of A.S. Création Tapeten AG)
are audited by the Supervisory Board and its
Audit Committee.
External control of the Group accounting
process is performed by the auditors of the
Group companies, who check that the reporting
package is fully consistent with the respective
financial statements and confirm the completeness
and accuracy of the information contained
therein. Additional controls are performed by
the Group auditor, who defines consistent audit
standards for the auditors of the individual
Group companies. In this context, the Group
auditor may take into account a special focus
of the audit that may have been defined by the
Supervisory Board of A.S. Création Tapeten AG