Dr. Ernst, as the Board Member for Finance, what do you consider were the most significant events in fiscal year 2002?

‘First, we can state with absolute confidence that Deutsche Post World Net’s financial position continues to be extremely solid.

Our economic development in 2002 was impacted by various factors, only some of which were under our control.

Then there is the first-time consolidation of DHL,which had a particularly noticeable impact on our annual financial statements. DHL is now responsible for around €6.2 billion of our consolidated revenue. The 100% takeover has led to a €707 million increase in financial liabilities on our balance sheet, although net gearing remains very low.

The European Commission’s state aid ruling also had a major financial impact on us in the year under review: this necessitated the recognition of a corresponding provision under other liabilities in the balance sheet, which was reflected as an extraordinary expense in the income statement and resulted in a reduction in the Group’s tax expense.

The payment of €907 million that we were ultimately required to make in January 2003 will be reflected as a decrease in cash and cash equivalents in the cash flow statement for Q1/2003. This will have no further impact on our income statement for the current year; in our balance sheet, however, cash and cash equivalents and other liabilities will decrease accordingly by €907 million, resulting in a de facto decrease in our total assets and liabilities. This will have a positive effect on the Group’s return on investment, among other things.’

All of these points relate to the consolidated financial statements. You are also disclosing Postbank “at equity”. Why?

‘In the “Postbank at equity” scenario, the balance sheet does not include Postbank’s assets and obligations. You can see that our consolidated balance sheet is heavily influenced by the items “Receivables and other securities from financial services” and “Liabilities from financial services”. These two items are due almost in their entirety to the deposit volume of and total credit extended by Postbank –overall, they constitute around 85%of balance sheet assets, equity and liabilities. This makes key Group figures, such as the capital ratio and Cash flow I, less meaningful.

This is why we have also prepared the income statement,cash flow statement and key figures under the “Postbank at equity” scenario. This gives the reader real value added information , since he or she is then better able to assess the Group ’s results of operations and financial strength.’

Are there any other fundamental changes in the 2002 financial statements compared with the previous year?

‘Yes, we focused in particular on the item “Other/Consolidation”. We removed the revenue generated by the retail outlets from this item and disclosed it in the FINANCIAL SERVICES Corporate Division for the first time in fiscal year 2002, i.e.we disclosed it in the Corporate Division which also bears the management responsibility for the retail outlets.

In addition, we completely reversed Postbank’s remaining negative goodwill in the item “Other/Consolidation”. As a result, this item will no longer have any effect on the income statement in the future.’

Do you plan to change other aspects of or add further elements to your financial reporting in the future?

‘In addition to providing investors with all the relevant information they need to make their decisions, our reporting aims to clearly demonstrate that, for us,solutions only count for something if they produce the right results. Of course,we also always take current developments into account in our financial reporting. For example, we provided a more in-depth explanation of the Group’s current pension expense and its resulting pension obligations in the Notes this year in order to create greater transparency.’