Mercedes 2015 Annual Report Download - page 43

The members of the Supervisory Board regularly prepared
for upcoming resolutions on the basis of documentation that
had been provided in advance by the Board of Management.
They were supported by the relevant committees and intensively
discussed the actions and transactions upon which decisions
were to be taken with the Board of Management. The members
of the Supervisory Board independently attended such courses
of training and further training regarded as necessary for the
performance of their tasks. In this context, in the meetings
of the Supervisory Board and in special training courses, they
dealt with issues of fundamental importance for the Group
such as the macroeconomic situation of key sales markets,
questions of corporate governance and changes in the legal
framework, and new products and forward-looking technologies.
In addition, the members representing the employees and
the members representing the shareholders regularly prepared
the Supervisory Board meetings in separate discussions, which
were attended by the members of the Board of Management.
The Board of Management informed the Supervisory Board with
the use of monthly reports and risk reports about the most
important indicators of business development and existing risks,
and submitted the interim financial reports to the Supervisory
Board. The Supervisory Board was kept fully informed of specific
matters also between its meetings. In addition, the Chairman
of the Board of Management informed the Chairman of the
Supervisory Board in regular discussions about important devel-
opments and about those matters that were to be submitted
to the Supervisory Board to pass resolutions on or to take note of.
As required in individual cases, for example in cases of special
urgency, the members were requested to pass resolutions
in writing, following consultation with the Chairman. For the
preparation of such proposed resolutions, comprehensive
and conclusive documentation was distributed to the members
of the Supervisory Board. Furthermore, the members of the
Board of Management were available for a bilateral exchange
of opinions and to answer any questions.
Topics dealt with by the Supervisory Board in the year 2015
In a meeting attended by the external auditors in early February
2015, the preliminary key figures of the annual company and
consolidated financial statements for 2014 and the dividend pro-
posal to be made at the 2015 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting
were discussed. The preliminary key figures for the year 2014
and the proposal on the appropriation of profit were announced
at the Annual Press Conference on February 5, 2015.
In the Supervisory Board meeting held on February 13, 2015,
the Supervisory Board first decided on the personnel changes
in the Board of Management described on E page 52.
Subsequently, it dealt with the annual company financial state-
ments, the annual consolidated financial statements and the
combined management report for Daimler AG and the Daimler
Group for the year 2014, each of which had been issued with
an unqualified audit opinion by the external auditors, as well as
with the reports of the Audit Committee and the Supervisory
Board, the corporate governance report, the remuneration report
and the proposal on the appropriation of profit. In preparation,
the members of the Supervisory Board were provided with com-
prehensive documentation. The Audit Committee and the
Supervisory Board dealt with those documents in detail and
discussed them intensively in the presence of the external
auditors, who reported on the results of their audit and were
available to answer supplementary questions and to provide
further information. Following the final results of the review by
the Audit Committee and its own review, the Supervisory
Board declared its agreement with the results of the audit carried
out by the external auditors. It determined that no objections
were to be raised and approved the financial statements and the
combined management report as presented by the Board of
Management. The company financial statements of Daimler AG
for the year 2014 were thereby adopted. On this basis, the
Supervisory Board consented to the proposal made by the Board
of Management on the appropriation of distributable profit.
In addition, the Supervisory Board approved the report of the
Supervisory Board, the corporate governance report and the
remuneration report, as well as its proposed decisions on the
items of the agenda for the 2015 Annual Shareholders’ Meeting.
Dr. Manfred Bischoff, Chairman of the Supervisory Board