Los repertorios del final del s. XX y comienzos del siglo XXI que rompen con la tradición pirata

As of the balance sheet date, the following contingent liabilities existed within the SKW Metallurgie Group: Quab business

In the course of the purchase of the Quab business from Degussa Corporation Inc. on January 16, 2007, which was then owned by the Evonik Group (RAG Group at the time), the company issued a guarantee indemnification declaration to Gigaset AG, München (Munich) (Germany), which was then known as ARQUES Industries AG, Starnberg, Germany, in the amount of USD 10.0 million. To hedge the resulting contingent liability, the Company bought corresponding environmental liability insur- ance with a deductible of USD 100,000. The release from the guarantee expired on January 16, 2012. ESM Group

ESM Group Inc. is involved in a standing maritime law dispute with carriers and the owner of the freight ship “Rickmers Genoa”. On March 8, 2005, this ship collided with the ship “Sun Cross”. The load that was on the ship was damaged considerably. As a result, there was a series of actions against the owner of the “Rickmers Genoa”, the owner of the “Sun Cross”, and against ESM as well. The claims against ESM Group Inc. and ESM Tianjin are all based on the claim that the load of super-Sul Mg-89 must be declared as hazardous goods but that ESM did not do so due to insufficient labeling. ESM has already taken active steps to defend itself against the claims made by the plaintiffs. The civil plaintiffs are claiming USD 4.2 million plus interest of 5.58% p.a. from March 10, 2005 to the day the verdict is read. ESM has stated that the claims made against it are without merit. ESM feels it relatively unlikely that this dispute will end negatively and has also taken out sufficient insurance in this regard.

In business year 2005, the Department of Homeland Security of the USA government searched the premises of ESM Group Inc. This investigation was caused by allegations that customs duties were not correctly paid for the specialty magnesium which the ESM Group Inc. resells. However, ESM was not the importer and had obtained this material from a supplier. Thus, ESM was not responsible for having the material cleared by customs. The maximum damages from the civil suit that has been initiated amount to around USD 14 million. On account of the matter described above, the Executive Board feels that availment of the ESM Group Inc. is not likely.

SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding AG / SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH

SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding AG is jointly liable according to the EU Commission’s penalty de- cision dated July 22, 2009 for the payment of a maximum penalty of EUR 13.3 million (joint and several liability by SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding AG and SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH together with Gigaset AG (formerly: ARQUES Industries AG) in the amount of EUR 13.3 million; joint and several liability by SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH together with Evonik Degussa GmbH and AlzChem Trostberg GmbH (formerly: AlzChem Hart GmbH) in the amount of EUR 1.04 million; accumulated joint and several liability by SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding AG and SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH limited to EUR 13.3 million). In agreement with the EU Commission, SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH has contributed bank guarantees with a total amount of EUR 6.7 million (50% of the maximum penalty). This amount is also carried as a provision at the subsidiary SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH as of December 31, 2010 as a provision for uncertain liabilities. In this connection, in 2010 Gigaset AG sued SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding AG and SKW Stahl-Metallurgie jointly for payment of the or indemnification from the part of the fine in excess of the amount paid by Gigaset AG to the EU Commission or collateralized using bank guarantees by SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH. Gigaset AG lost this litigation in the first instance. The responsible Regional Court München (Munich) I fully rejected the suit filed by Gigaset AG in its ruling dated July 13, 2011 and in addition it decided that “the monetary penalty is to be borne internally solely by the plaintiff [Gigaset AG]”. The objection filed by Gigaset AG was also rejected by the Upper Regional Court München (Munich) in its ruling dated February 9, 2012. While also referring to the reasons for the decision by the Regional Court, in its ruling, the Upper Regional Court München (Munich) also ascertained that “it is not the defen- dant [SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding AG and SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH] that has to bear the monetary penalty, but the plaintiff [Gigaset AG]”. SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding AG and SKW Stahl- Metallurgie GmbH can thus demand complete indemnification from the obligations vis-à-vis the EU Commission in connection with the penalty of EUR 13.3 million that was set from Gigaset AG. The appeal against the decision by the Upper Regional Court München (Munich) was admitted. In spite of this, however, a cash outflow for SKW Stahl-Metallurgie Holding AG and SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH became so improbable, with the result that the provision formed in the amount of EUR 6.7 million had to be reversed with the exception of lawyers’ costs that are still to be expected in the amount of EUR 0.5 million.

SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH

One of SKW Stahl-Metallurgie GmbH’s customers informed the company in September 2011 that a container had exploded during the rail transport for a delivery of calcium carbide. With the excep- tion of property damage, as far as the company is aware, no people were injured in this explosion. As a result - however this has not been conclusively clarified to date - if this concerns the material supplied by the SKW Metallurgie Group, this explosion took place long after the risk had been trans- ferred. To date, the SKW Metallurgie Group also does not have any other secure information on the reasons for this explosion or the amounts of any damage.

We cannot yet foresee whether there will be a conflict with this customer or a third party as a result of this explosion. The amount of any value under dispute in such a case cannot yet be estimated.