Brief study: Declarations of Compliance 2020/2021 with the German Corporate Governance Code. An analysis of influencing factors and reasons for deviation

The Deutsche Corporate Governance Kodex (DCGK) contains recommendations on good corporate governance. Section 161 of the German Stock Corporation Act (AktG) requires listed German companies to make an annual public declaration on the recommendations of the DCGK: the so-called declarations of conformity. In these declarations, companies must publish which recommendations they have complied with in the reporting year (comply) and which they have not (explain), in accordance with the comply-or-explain principle.

The short study pursues two questions:

• Which sections and recommendations of the Deutsche Corporate Governance Kodex do companies listed in the DAX or MDAX deviate from particularly frequently?
• How do the companies justify deviations from the Code's recommendations?

The study is based on a content analysis of the currently published declarations of conformity with the DCGK of the 90 companies listed in the DAX and MDAX.

You can download the short study here (German only)

By Matthias Leuker, Adrian Fonger and Christian P. Hoffmann