Corporate Governance Statement,
reporting period Jan. 1 – Dec. 31, 2015

The Board Committees

The proper function of the corporate governance of a company requires that Board work be organized as efficiently as possible. For this reason the Company has established an Audit and Financial Committee.

The Directors on the committee can concentrate on the matters delegated to the committee more extensively than the entire Board of Directors. The purpose of the committee is to enhance the efficient preparation of matters within the competence of the Board, increase transparency and ensure the quality and efficiency of the decision making of the Board.

The committee assists the Board by preparing matters falling within the competence of the Board. The Board remains responsible for the duties assigned to the committee. The committee has no autonomous decisionmaking power, and thus the Board makes the decisions within its competence collectively.

A committee shall regularly report on its work to the Board. The reports shall include at least a summary of the matters addresses and measures taken by the committee.

The central duties and operating principles of the Audit and Financial Committee are described below. The Annual General Meeting decides on the compensation of the members of the Board committee and such compensations can be publicly reviewed from Company´s website at www.bittium.com.

Audit and financial committee

  • The Audit and Financial Committee has the following duties:
  • to monitor the reporting process of financial statements;
  • to supervise the financial reporting process;
  • to monitor the efficiency of the Company´s internal control, internal audit, if applicable, and risk management systems;
  • to review the description of the main features of the internal control and risk management systems pertaining to the financial reporting process, which is included in the Company´s corporate governance statement;
  • to monitor the statutory audit of the financial statements and consolidated financial statements;
  • to evaluate the independence of the statutory auditor or audit firm and particularly the provision of related services; and
  • to prepare the proposal for resolution on the election of the auditor.

The Chairman and the members of the Audit and Financial Committee are appointed by the Board of Directors of the Company. At least one committee member must be a financial expert who has significant knowledge and experience in accounting and accounting principles applicable to the Company. The Board of Directors decided in its assembly meeting held on April 15, 2015 to elect Staffan Simberg (Chairman of the Committee), Seppo Laine, Authorized Public Accountant and Erkki Veikkolainen as members of the Audit and Finance Committee. The Board of Dirctors decided in its assembly meeting held on November 5, 2015 to elect Staffan Simberg (Chairman of the Committee) and Kirsi Komi as members of the Audit and Finance Committee. All members of the committee are independent from immediate interest of both the Company and its significant shareholders and they have long term experience in business management. The Board of Directors decided further in its same meeting to invite the former Chairman of the Board Mr. Seppo Laine as external advisor of the Board of Directors.

In addition to committee members, other regular participants to the committee meetings are CEO and CFO of the Company and optionally external auditors. Further, the committee members may meet the external auditors without the operative management being present in such meetings. In 2015, the Audit and Financial Committee convened six (6) times to ordinary meetings. The Committee has evaluated, prepared and reviewed, inter alia, the following subject matters during the financial period of January 1, 2015 - December 31, 2015:

  • Financial Statements of 2014;
  • Interim Reports of 2015;
  • Annual audit plan for 2015;
  • Observations based on auditing during the financial period;
  • Observation by the internal control;
  • Cash flow monitoring and evaluation of sufficiency of financing;
  • Budget target setting and budgeting process;
  • Dividend payment;
  • M&A related issues and their effects on the result, balance sheet and financing status of the Group;
  • Group legal structure related questions; and
  • Impairment testing of the subsidiary shares and goodwill.

During 2016 the Committee´s focus areas are:

  • Assessment of material handling processes and development needs for related financial reporting;
  • Assesment of off-balance sheet liability processes and risks;
  • Assesment of product and service project offer and agreement processes; and
  • Follow-up cash management and spend.