Consolidated Financial Statements - L. Possehl & Co. mbH

XI. NOTES TO THE SEGMENTAL REPORTING
General information
The segmentation of the Group’s activities follows the internal reporting
structure and the management of the Group according to the business
segments. On a secondary level, there is a regional split by geographic
regions. Activities and regions that cannot be specifi cally allocated are
combined in a category called “Others”.
Business segments
The Production segment is comprised of the business divisions
Electronics, Precious Metals Processing, Special-Purpose Construction
and the business division acquired during the year under review,
Elastomer-Processing.
The Trading segment includes those Group companies that are involved
in the international raw materials trading of minerals, ores, metals,
plastics and chemicals. The product range is rounded out by upstream
and downstream preparation, grinding and processing activities.
The combined activities of the Services segment include the Group’s
companies in environmental protection and the brokerage of insurance
and transport services.
Central service functions that are rendered through holding and intermediate
holding companies are combined in the Holding segment together
with the held fi nancial investments.
Geographic regions
Secondary segmenting is based on the regions of Germany, other
Europe, Asia and America.
Segmental data
The data in the segmental reporting is based on the accounting and
reporting methods applied in the consolidated fi nancial statements
and explained in the notes to the consolidated fi nancial statements.
They are prepared in the sense of economically and legally independent
companies, i.e. without eliminating inter-segmental processes. The
transition of the balance sheet and income statement items to the
items of the consolidated balance sheet and income statement accordingly
represents the extent of the inter-segmental consolidation.
The external sales revenue includes revenue from the sale of the products
and/or the rendering of services to third parties. The inter-segmental
sales result from supply and service relations among the individual
segments. They are offset based on market prices. None of the
sales across the segments are subject to elimination.
As the segmental result, the earnings before taxes (EBT) are reported.
For the differentiation of the segmental assets, the tax claims are subtracted
from the gross assets. The segmental liabilities include provisions
and long- and short-term debt/liabilities excluding tax liabilities.
The balance from other non-cash items includes mainly write-ups,
changes in bad loan losses, provisions (excluding tax provisions) and
changes in inventories.
The inter-segmental lock-in of capital between the operating subsidiaries
of the individual business segments and the holding companies, in
particular the parent company, becomes apparent in the transition of
the segmental assets, liabilities and fi nancial result.
For geographic segmenting, sales are segmented according to the location
of the customer. The segmental assets and investments follow the
location of the respective Group company.
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