Annual Report 2010 311 - Verbundnetz Gas AG

VNG – Verbundnetz Gas Aktiengesellschaft, Leipzig
Notes
General notes
VNG – Verbundnetz Gas Aktiengesellschaft, Leipzig (VNG), is a large company within the definition
given in Article 267, HGB (German Commercial Code).
The annual financial statements for the 2010 financial year have been drawn up in accordance with all
the relevant provisions of the German Commercial Code, the German Stock Corporation Act, the Energy
Industry Act and the Act on the Preparation of Deutschmark Financial Statements. The balance sheet
as at December 31, 2010 recognises the partial appropriation of net income for the year.
For clearer and more effective presentation, individual items of the balance sheet and the income
statement are grouped together. These items are explained in these notes. The notes to the balance
sheet and income statement items required by law and the notes which may either be presented in
the balance sheet itself or in the notes are presented in these notes.
The income statement has been prepared using the nature of expense method in accordance with
Article 275 (2), German Commercial Code.
In the event that changes in the disclosure and valuation of balance sheet items have been made as
a result of the German Financial Reporting Modernization Act which came into force on May 29, 2009,
the previous year’s figures have, in accordance with Article 67 (8), Sentence 2, Act Introducing the
German Commercial Code, not been restated in connection with the first-time application of the German
Financial Reporting Modernization Act as at January 1, 2010.
Accounting and valuation principles
Fixed assets
Intangible assets acquired for a consideration are carried at historical cost less straight-line depreciation.
Property, plant and equipment are carried at procurement or production cost taking into consideration
appropriate overheads in accordance with Article 255 (2), German Commercial Code. Buildings
and structures are valued at procurement or production cost with straight-line depreciation. Technical
plants and machinery, and other equipment, fixtures, furniture and office equipment were generally
depreciated following the declining-balance method up to and including the 2009 financial year. VNG
has exercised the option allowed by Article 67 (4), Sentence 1, Act Introducing the German Commercial
Code, to continue the previous valuations and to apply declining-balance depreciation. If straight-line
depreciation had been applied, the additional depreciation would have been € 1,148 k. Since 2010,
newly acquired technical plants and machinery, other equipment, fixtures, furniture and office equipment
have been depreciated by the straight-line method. Investment subsidies from previous years are
shown as a special item and released on a pro rata basis in line with depreciation in accordance with
the provisions of the Commercial Code.
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