Auditors

The auditors are appointed each year by the Annual General Meeting. 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 492,000 (2022: CHF 488,500). The auditors also charged a total of CHF 65,000 (2022: CHF 110,000) for additional audit-related services. No fees were paid to the auditors for additional services either in the reporting year or the previous year.

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 from the external auditing firm participates in the relevant agenda items at least twice a year at the meetings of the Audit & Finance Committee.