AG: Abbreviation for the German word ‘Aktiengesellschaft’ (stock corporation).
AktG: German Stock CorporationAct
Arm’s Length Principle: Internal sales are invoiced at normal market prices and as matter of principle are thus in line with sales to third parties.
Authorised capital: Contingent resolution passed by the shareholders authorising the management board of a public company to increase the capital up to a certain amount and within a certain time-frame.
BDLI: German Aerospace Industries Association
BEV: Battery Electric Vehicle; refers to an automobile that uses at least one electric motor as drive system.
BilMoG: Act of the modernisation of accounting law.
Borrowings: Capital raised externally by taking on loans.
CAPEX: Acronym for ‘capital expenditures’. Capital spending on non-current assets such as machinery or buildings.
Capital and reserves: Funds made available to a company by its legal owners. Equals the company’s assets net of all liabilities, provisions and deferred items.
Capital increase: Issue of new shares on a cash or non-cash basis or by using the company’s own funds.
Carbon footprint: The carbon footprint is the amount of CO2 emissions that a person produces in a certain period of time. It shows your average
CO2 balance: a large footprint causes an above-average amount of emissions; a small footprint, on the other hand, implies a climate-friendly life.
Cash and cash equivalents: Cash in hand plus bank balances and cheques.
Cash flow: Cash flow represents the funds generated from own operating activity and shows the ability of a company to fund itself (net profit plus depreciation and transfer to longterm provisions).
Cash flow from operating activities: EPost-tax earnings adjusted for non-cash items, plus depreciation/amortisation, additions to provisions and changes in working capital.
Cash-generating units: The smallest identifiable group of assets that generates cash inflows and that are largely independent of the cash inflows from other assets.
CoC: Abk. für engl. a) Center of Competence. b) Code of Conduct. Corporate compliance: This refers to a company’s efforts to comply with statutes, guidelines and voluntary codes and entails, for example, the entrenchment of applicable laws in the company’s corporate culture and day-to-day business practice.
Corporate Governance: Corporate Governance summarizes the legal and factual framework of governance and monitoring a company.
Corporate Responsibility: A company’s responsibility taking into account the impact of its actions on society, employees, the environment and the economic environment.
Corporate Social Responsibility: ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR) is the social responsibility of companies to manage their business sustainably. It is the responsibility of companies for their impact on society. This includes social, ecological and economic aspects.
CO2 equivalents: CO2 equivalents illustrate the global warming potential of various climate-damaging gases and show how much a certain quantity of a greenhouse gas contributes to the greenhouse effect. The reference value used is carbon dioxide (CO2). The index expresses the warming effect of a certain quantity of a greenhouse gas over a clearly defined period of time compared to that of CO2.
CO2 emissions: CO2 emissions refer to the emission of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas. CO2 is produced during the combustion of materials containing carbon, such as wood, coal, diesel or gas.
CSRD: Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive – Rules on non-financial Reporting.
DAX: The DAX (German share index) encompasses Germany’s 40 largest public companies that are stock-market listed.
DCGK: The Deutscher Corporate Governance Kodex (German Corporate Governance Code) presents essential statutory regulations for the management and supervision of German listed companies and contains, in the form of recommendations and suggestions, internationally and nationally acknowledged standards for good and responsible corporate governance. Besides giving recommendations and suggestions that reflect the best practice of corporate governance, the Code aims at enhancing the German corporate governance system’s transparency and comprehensibility, in order to strengthen the confidence of international and national investors, clients, employees and the general public in the management and supervision of German listed companies.
Deferred taxes: Income tax arising in future periods as a result of temporary differences between the IFRS carrying values and the tax base.
Derivatives: Products that are derived from a base asset and whose price depends to a large extent on the price of the underlying financial instrument. They make it possible to control market price risks. Derivatives include the following types of product: forex forward transactions, swaps, options and option-like instruments (caps, floors etc.).
Discounted cash flow method: A method of valuing a business based on capitalising future financial surpluses.
Distributable profit: The surplus of net profit or net loss plus profit or loss carry-forwards, less retained profit and minority interests.
Dividend: A distribution of a portion of a company’s earnings to its shareholders
EBIT: earnings before interest and taxes
ESG: Environment, Social and Governance as aspects of sustainable action.
EU Taxonomy: Catalogue of criteria defined by the EU for the uniform assessment of the sustainability of economic activities.
Fair Value: In accordance with IFRS.
Free cash flow: Cash flow from operating activities and cash flow from investing activities.
Free float: Shares in a public company not held by major investors.
Goodwill: Intangible asset. Corresponds to the future economic benefit of assets that cannot be individually identified or separately carried.
GUIDE: Guide for Intelligent Driving Efficiency. Development of new functionalities that not only make the vehicle a customizable partner, but also optimize driving time and distance.
HGB: German appreviation for the Commercial Code.
IAS: The IAS (International Accounting Standards) are intended to ensure that accounting and reporting is comparable on an international level.
IDW: Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer in Deutschland e. V. (Institute of Public Auditors in Germany, Incorporated Association)
IFRS: IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) refer to the internationally accepted accounting standards since 2002. They therefore also comprise the applicable International Accounting Standards.
Impairment test: A method of testing the value of assets.
Institutional investor: Institutional investors may be insurance companies, pension funds, capital investment companies or also banks that regularly have investment requirement. Other investor groups comprise professional traders and private investors.
ISO 9001: International standard that describes the minimum requirements for quality management systems.
ISO 14001: International environmental management standard that specifies globally recognised requirements for an environmental management system.
ISO 45001: A standard that specifies the requirements currently applicable for an occupational health and safety management system.
Investments: Payments made for investments in property, plant and equipment and payments for investments in intangible assets. Payments for the acquisition of consolidated companies and other business units and for investments accounted for using the equity method are not included here.
Issued capital: The ISIN (International Security Identification Number) is a tendigit number prefixed with a country code (DE = Germany, CH = Switzerland) and serves to make securities internationally identifiable.
ISAE 3000: International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000 - is an international auditing standard published by the International Federation of Accountants.
ISIN: The share capital in a public company or company with limited liability that is to be recorded in the balance sheet.
KPI: ‘Key performance indicators’ relate to the success, performance or capacity utilisation of a business, its individual organisational units, or a machine.
MAR: Since 3 July 2016, Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 (Market Abuse Regulation) has been directly applicable in the mem- ber states of the European Union. Its objective is to create a consistent set of rules applicable throughout the EU for the protection of market integrity.
Market capitalisation: eflects the current stock-market value of the company. Derived by multiplying the number listed shares by the closing-day share price.
Material expenses: Sum of all the expenses incurred in the purchase of raw materials and supplies needed for the company’s own processing, plus acquired services.
Net current assets: see working capital.
OPEX: Acronym for ‘operational expenditures’. Operating expenses related to functioning business operations.
Payout: Dividends, bonuses, bonus shares as well as liquidation proceeds that are paid out to shareholders.
PHEV: Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle; a hybrid electric vehicle with a battery that can be recharged by plugging a charging cable into an external power source. The battery can also be charged internally on board the vehicle using the combustion engine's generator.
Price-earnings ratio: Ratio of the current share price to earnings per share.
Roadshow: Series of company presentations by an issuer to investors in various financial centres. The purpose of a roadshow is to inform investors and other stakeholders about current developments in the company.
SDAX: Defined index in the Prime Standard for smaller com- panies (small caps) of the traditional industries below the MDAX companies.
Shareholder: Shareholders are persons who own shares in a company, usually equities. As a result, shareholders act as owners and hope to generate financial returns. This term is frequently used, especially by listed companies.
Stakeholder: Stakeholders are all persons, groups or institutions that are directly or indirectly affected by the activities of a company or that have an interest in these activities. Stakeholders try to influence the company.
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): The Sustainable Development Goals were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. They cover economic, ecological and social aspects and each aspect comprises individual indicators that make implementation of the goals measurable.
Tax rate: Ratio of actual income taxes to earnings before income taxes.
Total assets/total equity and liabilities: The sum of all assets or the sum of shareholders’ equity and liabilities.
Total sales/Total revenue/Total operating performance: Total sales indicates the company's total operating performance and is made up of the income statement items revenue and other own work capitalized.
WACC: (weighted average cost of capital) is the rate that a company is expected to pay on average to all its security holders to finance its assets.
Whitelist: The whitelist is a catalog of non-audit services drawn up by the Audit Committee, which specifies which additional services (outside the audit) the auditor may provide for the company.
WKN: German abbreviation for Security Code Number.
Working Capital: Current assets (trade receivables, contract assets, inventories) less current liabilities (trade payables, contract liabilities).
WpHG: German Securities Trading Act.