report of the supervisory board

Dear members,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

2021 was another financial year that, like 2020, was very unusual. A long lockdown, which meant that at least in the 2nd and 3rd quarters the pandemic situation eased and allowed us to meet in person again at the end of September on the occasion of a general meeting of our GFT after a long two years. Everyone enjoyed this opportunity very much, as we could see, before the pandemic situation dramatically tightened again in the 4th quarter.

The economy was and still is heavily burdened in the course of the pandemic. And we learned once again how important our work is. GFT members have helped to provide their clients with highly qualified advice in all facets of digitalisation, to upgrade telecommunication systems for or to the cloud and to adequately equip home office workplaces, which has immeasurable value in times of crisis. Corona is a wake-up call in many ways: for economies across the globe that are now largely dependent on manufacturing in Asia. Digital visibility is no longer a future issue. The increased enthusiasm of our customers for digitalisation can also be understood as an opportunity if all market participants realise that a networked ecosystem releases enormous synergies.

The increased enthusiasm of our customers for digitalisation can also be understood as an opportunity.

During the course of the pandemic, we provided our members with the "Corona Special" on the GFT intranet with all the important information on the pandemic and the assistance offered by the federal government and the states, and kept it up to date at all times. GFT also maintained a constant exchange with key suppliers in order to identify a breakdown in the supply chain at an early stage. GFT commenced its activities in Austria in 2021 with the founding of GFT Austria GmbH, based in Vienna. Mr Rappan started as the new Managing Director of GFT Austria GmbH on 1st January 2021 and is responsible for market development there. Despite the difficult environment caused by the pandemic, members were successfully acquired in Austria and convinced of GFT's services for medium-sized ICT system houses.

In addition, the development of the open-vendor billing platform Asteria, which began in 2020, was actively continued in the form of a SaaS solution. The automated interfaces to various upstream suppliers were created and technically administratively validated. With the introduction of Asteria, GFT is leading the way, as a multi-stage billing process (GFT -> member -> end customer) has not existed in this form in the ITC industry until now. In future, it will be possible to bill the cloud services of a wide range of providers, such as ALE, Unify, Mitel, Voiceworks plus classic SIP trunk pre-products, including the telephone charges incurred, in the "name and for the account of our members" to their customers as a central service.

The Supervisory Board fully supports these activities of the Executive Board to continue the internationalisation and to establish the Asteria billing platform. We see the support of the members through this strategic orientation as an important part of the cooperative's mission of promotion. We also recognise the measures taken by GFT, which again contributed to increased public awareness in the international trade press during the past financial year.

In this special financial year, the Supervisory Board once again carefully and conscientiously performed the duties incumbent upon it according to the law, the Articles of Association and the Rules of Procedure. These include the regular consultation as well as the continuous monitoring of the Executive Board. For this purpose, six joint meetings of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board as well as one meeting of the Supervisory Board without the Executive Board took place in the 2021 financial year. Of the total of seven meetings, three meetings were held in person and four meetings were held online for precautionary reasons. Through these measures, the members of the Supervisory Board satisfied themselves of the legality, orderliness and expediency of the Executive Board's activities. The Executive Board always involved the Supervisory Board early and comprehensively in all decisions of material importance and informed it monthly about deviations from plans as well as about the company's risk situation and risk management: In the view of the Supervisory Board, there are no risks to the continued existence of GFT.

In the case of decisions requiring the approval of the Supervisory Board, the latter passed the resolutions required by the Articles of Association. The Supervisory Board approved the budget and investment planning submitted by the Executive Board after detailed consultations. The chairpersons of the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board were also in contact outside of the meetings in case of important discussions. In addition, the Chairman of the Supervisory Board was informed immediately by the Chairman of the Executive Board in the event of significant acute events.

The Baden-Württembergische Genossenschaftsverband e. V. (BWGV) has positively assessed the economic situation of GFT and confirmed the proper conduct of business without objections. At the final meeting on 2nd March 2022, the annual financial statements of GFT Gemeinschaft Fernmelde-Technik eG were given an unqualified audit opinion. The Supervisory Board follows these findings and has no objections. The Supervisory Board approves the annual financial statements, the combined management report and the proposed appropriation of profits.

The 2021 business year was characterised by many challenges, among other things due to the still tense market situation, which were mastered not least due to the above-average commitment of the employees. This showed that the GFT workforce is aware of its important role. The employees have fully committed themselves to their tasks in order to maintain the accustomed invoice processing of the members. The pandemic has shown that the true value of a company lies in the people who identify with it every day at their various workplaces. The Supervisory Board thanks the entire staff and the Executive Board for their successful work.

Yours sincerely

Thorsten Mayländer
Chairman of the Supervisory Board

Hilden, 2nd March 2022