Corporate | 1 February 2006 08:01

ARQUES Industries AG: ARQUES Consolidated Financial Statements of 2004 confirmed by FREP Audit

Corporate-news transmitted by DGAP – a company of EquityStory AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. —————————————————————————— ARQUES Consolidated Financial Statements of 2004 confirmed by FREP Audit Throughout Germany, one of the first audits completed by the Deutsche Prüfstelle für Rechnungslegung (Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel) Starnberg, February 1, 2006 – The Starnberg-based investment holding company ARQUES Industries AG (ISIN DE0005156004) announces the results of an audit of their 2004 consolidated financial statements by the Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (FREP). Among other things, a primary part of the audit was performing a special investigation on the so-called ‘bargain purchase’ accounting. The FREP thereby determined that ARQUES did not report the profits for financial year 2004 as too high. At the time of preparation of the 2004 consolidated financial statements, ARQUES was still listed on the over-the-counter market, but had complied with IFRS voluntarily. The auditor’s certificate for the 2004 annual financial statements can therefore be upheld in its entirety; only the reporting errors questioned by the FREP, such as with regard to the classifications in the Notes, specification of the accounting methods and the fact that the purchase prices paid were not indicated are being added in an appendix to the 2005 consolidated financial statements for the sake of better transparency. By means of the Bilanzkontrollgesetz (Accounting Enforcement Act), the so-called enforcement proceeding was introduced at the end of 2004 for stock exchange companies listed in the official or regulated market. The Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel in Berlin has been authorized since July 1, 2005 to check annual financial statements for their compliance with the IFRS standards. According to the FREP, more than 50 proceedings have been started since that time, primarily for companies of DAX, MDAX and TecDAX. ARQUES is the only company to undergo an OTC financial statement audit to date. With the final report on the consolidated financial statements for 2004 of ARQUES Industries AG, one of the first proceedings could now be successfully completed. ARQUES executive board member Dr. Dr. Peter Löw appears to be generally pleased: ‘With the FREP vote, the discussion on bargain purchase and accounting standards for ARQUES has now finally come to an end. It is also now well established, that the ARQUES business model has a reliable reporting basis. For us internally, the favorable vote by the FREP actually means accolades for us.’ The summarizing notification of the findings of the FREP including explanations can be downloaded at www.arques.de/ Investor Relations. About ARQUES ARQUES Industries AG, Starnberg, is a turnaround specialist who focuses on the acquisition and the active restructuring of companies in transitional situations, in order to develop these, with its own team and own resources, to competitive enterprises with a positive yield. ARQUES revitalises its subsidiaries’ potential for creating value for the benefit of all its stakeholders, taking on the relevant social responsibility. ARQUES has made a duty of identifying underestimated companies with reduced survivability but with high appreciation potential, at the same time mastering complex company structures and transitional situations. The shares of ARQUES Industries AG are traded in the regulated market (Prime Standard) of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol ‘AQU’ (ISIN: DE0005156004) and are listed in the SDAX since September 19, 2005. Contact: ARQUES Industries AG Investor Relations & Corporate Communication Anke Lüdemann, CEFA/CIIA Tel.: +49 (0) 8151/ 651 0 Email: luedemann@arques.de (c)DGAP 01.02.2006 ————————————————————————— language: English emitter: ARQUES Industries AG Münchner Str. 15a 82319 Starnberg Deutschland phone: +49 (0)8151 651-0 fax: +49 (0)8151 651- 500 email: info@arques.de WWW: www.arques.de ISIN: DE0005156004 WKN: 515600 indexes: SDAX stockmarkets: Geregelter Markt in Frankfurt; Freiverkehr in Berlin-Bremen, München, Stuttgart End of News DGAP News-Service —————————————————————————