Auditors

The auditors are appointed each year by the General Meeting of Shareholders. The current auditors Ernst & Young AG assumed their mandate in 2018. The present lead auditor, Daniel Zaugg, has thus been responsible for this mandate since 2018, which is limited by law to a period of seven years.

The group-wide fee charged by the current auditors for auditing the figures for the year under review amounted to CHF 442,350 (2020: CHF 361,600). The auditors also charged a total of CHF 105,500 (2020: CHF 119,500) for additional audit-related services. In terms of non-audit-related services CHF 0 (2020: CHF 0) was charged for tax consultancy.

The Audit & Finance Committee is responsible for monitoring and supervising the external audit. It deals with the formulation and approval of integrated audit planning, which includes the plans for both external and internal audits. Moreover, the Audit & Finance Committee evaluates and analyses the respective audit reports and approves the fees for the external audit.

The auditors provide a written report on the results of the interim audit and the end-of-year audit. The lead auditor at the auditing firm attends the meetings of the Audit & Finance Committee.