for the Period Ended 31 January 2024
Directors report | |
Balance sheet | |
Additional notes | |
Balance sheet notes |
Directors' report period ended
The directors present their report with the financial statements of the company for the period ended 31 January 2024
Principal activities of the company
Political and charitable donations
Company policy on disabled employees
Additional information
Inspection and audit In April 2024 a health and safety management audit was completed by an external consultancy in the UK with the purpose to ensure the business is maintaining and/or improving all procedures above the line of minimum compliance. Subject areas audited covered management awareness, operational procedures, risk assessments, training, internal audit and review processes. The results showed that improvements continue to be made and all legislation is complied with, as well as good leadership, clear communication and reporting to ensure that the Board both understand the issues and can act as needed. Service partners are made to feel part of the team which was perceived particularly positive as it reassures that contractor staff are working safely to Acrobat Group aims. In summary, the audit showed that the group is meeting and exceeding our legal responsibilities and is continually improving all health & safety and wellbeing procedures for the business. The result provides assurance that all offices in the scope receive the highest level of health & safety conformance to the Acrobat Group Health & Safety standard that is required by its policy. Collective agreements In Collective agreements put in place also cover health and safety matters. A Health & Safety Committee pays great attention to health, hygiene, safety and the working conditions of employees. Acrobat Group And It’s Holdings Corporation evaluates and anticipates risks, offers information and implements training on these subjects and we regularly review our procedures and systems at least once a year through the report identifying the risk on health & safety and working conditions and the report identifying the action plan implemented to control risk. These two documents are regularly reviewed with the social representatives. Employee wellbeing & Charity Supporting our people to ensure their wellbeing in life and at work is a critical focus for the group in todays demanding world. We are committed to safeguarding and enhancing the health and wellbeing of all our employees. To support this, we provide employees with a range of enhanced healthcare services and benefits tailored to each persons performance. Ensuring that our employees across the group have access to information and services which promote their health and wellbeing is a critical role the firm plays in assisting our people to focus on balancing their work and home lives. The group has identified a number of strategic opportunities to improve digital working practices to ensure we serve our clients most effectively, whilst providing our teams with a more modern and effective work environment and online training have ensured that remote working is accessible seamlessly from anywhere without compromising security or productivity. We continuously strengthen and improve health and safety compliance and conformance requirements by following the improvement programme required by our Groups Health & Safety Policy. Responsible investment solutions We acknowledge that our business activities and investment decisions have a direct impact on the economy. As engaged investors we want to play an active role in influencing business practices and drive flows towards the most sustainable players. As responsible investors we are committed to protect our portfolios from risk and seize Through our broad range of investment expertise we benefit from a key positioning to encourage large corporates small to mid size players as well as investment firms to embrace sustainable and innovative practices which we consider vital in a world that faces challenges from climate change and social injustice. Through our investment business lines & activities we proactively engage, raise awareness, and increase transparency regarding issues amongst a wide array of institutional and private investors these including enterprise foundations and charities. Human rights Respect for the individual is at the heart of our culture and family values that have run through our organisation for generations. The importance we place upon human rights is inextricably linked to these values. We foster a culture of openness, thereby enabling employees to raise any legal, compliance with ethical concerns, including those related to any breach of human rights within our business or within our suppliers & Group. We are committed to countering modern slavery in all its forms and we are taking proportionate measures to ensure that slavery and human trafficking are not taking place in our business or in our supply chains. This includes the formation of a Modern Slavery Working Group in the United Kingdom. to consider any modern slavery risks and the ways in which we can seek to mitigate them on a pragmatic, risk assessed basis. Equal representation and compensation As an equal opportunity employer, we seek to recruit and reward based on experience and talent, ensuring that the best candidate for the position is found and appropriately supported in their personal development by the business. We strive to provide equal opportunities for everyone. We are committed to ensuring equal representation transparency and transparency in pay and promotions when rewarding performance. There is an annual review process to ensure there are no pay discrepancies within the group for people performing similar roles on our transparency for all employees globally and locally. These policies are implemented by divisional committees who oversee promotions on a global basis. We ensure that there is a gender balanced participation at these committees as well as at the benchmarking committees during our performance evaluation process. The decisions made at these benchmarking committees are a critical input into promotion decisions, and diversity is a critical component as we evaluate our people. The Supervisory Board The Supervisory Board, through the workings of the Risk Committee and the Audit Committee, ensures the implementation by Executive Management of reliable procedures and processes for monitoring the internal control systems of the Group in order to identify, assess and manage risk.
Directors
The director shown below has held office during the period of
1 November 2023
to
31 January 2024
The directors shown below have held office during the period of
1 November 2023
to
1 November 2023
Secretary
The above report has been prepared in accordance with the special provisions in part 15 of the Companies Act 2006
This report was approved by the board of directors on
And signed on behalf of the board by:
Name:
Status: Secretary
As at
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The notes form part of these financial statements
The directors have chosen not to file a copy of the company's profit and loss account.
This report was approved by the board of directors on
and signed on behalf of the board by:
Name:
Status: Director
The notes form part of these financial statements
for the Period Ended 31 January 2024
Basis of measurement and preparation
Turnover policy
Tangible fixed assets depreciation policy
Intangible fixed assets amortisation policy
Valuation information and policy
Other accounting policies
for the Period Ended 31 January 2024
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for the Period Ended 31 January 2024
Independent control functions Internal control at (Z U A A H L) consists of permanent and periodic controls. While they are complementary, they are distinct and independent of one another: permanent control is the overall process for monitoring the risks to which the Group is exposed as a result of its ongoing activities and operations. It is carried out by operational staff, and their line managers, and by independent permanent control functions either within, or independent of, these operational entities; and periodic control is the overall process for ex-post verification of the operations of the Group, based on investigations that are conducted by the Group Internal Audit function, which performs periodic checks on an independent basis on the design and the effectiveness of the first two lines of defence. Group Legal & Compliance (including Financial Compliance) The responsibilities of the Group Legal & Compliance function include, among other things: development and maintenance of compliance policies and procedures (including those dealing with financial such as anti-money laundering), execution or supervision of monitoring programmes, conduct of any required investigation and advice on compliance aspects of any transactional or business processes, facilitation of certain aspects of risk governance (e.g. the Advisory Risk Committee or the Group Financial Compliance Committee, etc.), monitoring and review of legislation and regulatory developments which might affect the Group’s business, reporting results of monitoring programmes to senior management, agreeing any remedial action or changes to all of the above with senior management. This independent internal control function reports to the Group Head of Legal & Compliance, who is a member of the Executive Committee. The Group Head of Legal & Compliance reports to the Executive Committee, (Z U A A H L) the Supervisory Board’s Audit and Risk Committees and to various boards (or their equivalent) around the Group. Group Risk Group Risk is responsible for ensuring that suitable risk management processes are in place across the Group and for reporting on a consolidated view of risk exposures across the Group. As part of its role, Risk assesses the risks in each business and how they are managed, aims to establish a forward-looking view over emerging risks within the businesses or the external environment and delivers an independent and objective perspective on the risks in the business and whether they are consistent with approved strategy and risk appetite. Group Internal Audit Periodic control is independently exercised by Group Internal Audit. The Head of Internal Audit meets formally every three to four months with the relevant Managing Partners of the Managing Partner and, whenever necessary, to present the activity of the Internal Audit function and discuss any material findings raised during the period. The Head of Internal Audit presents the activity of Internal Audit to the Audit Committee which meets four times a year. At the beginning of the financial year, the Audit Committee approves the audit plan for the coming year and during its meetings in May and September it reviews in detail the activity of the Internal Audit function as described below. The Head of Internal Audit meets regularly, usually every quarter, with the heads of the main lines of business to discuss progress on activity and the evolution of risks for their respective area of responsibility. This forms part of the regular information of the Internal Audit function on the evolution of the Group’s risk profile. Organisation of the Group accounting arrangements Group Finance has the necessary people to produce the financial, accounting and regulatory information of the Group on a consolidated and regulatory basis. The Finance department consists of four sections: management accounting; financial accounting (including consolidations); systems; and regulatory reporting. Process for establishing consolidated accounts The Group financial accounting department of (Z U A A H L) performs the Group consolidation, controls the consistency and completeness of data and draws up the consolidated accounts and related notes. In all subsidiaries report their individual accounting information using a chart of accounts and a format that are common to the whole Group. Accounting data is reported directly under IFRS. The Group defines in its data dictionary how to record specific transactions and defines how the notes to the accounts should be prepared. The data dictionary, as well as other accounting guidance. Accounting control process The accounting control process at Group level complements the control systems implemented at each level of the Group’s organisation. Control framework for regulatory reports The Group Regulatory Reporting Division draws up the relevant Group procedures and ensures the quality and reliability of calculations of the solvency ratio, credit risk, market risk, operational risk and regulatory capital. THE EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF THE MANAGER The Executive Chairman of (Z U A A H L) is the only executive corporate officer and therefore the only legal representative (Z U A A H L) sc393133. He does not benefit from any employment contract with the Company. This fixed remuneration, which reflects the requirements of the role and the executive’s skills and experience, may only be reviewed at relatively long intervals in accordance with the recommendations. For the record, for nov 2023, the amount of such fixed salary remuneration was set £178,000.00 p.a., The Supervisory Board members’ remuneration policy establishes, within the overall amount approved by the shareholders, a competitive remuneration adapted to the Company’s strategy and in line with its corporate interest. This policy promotes the attendance of Supervisory Board members at Board committees’ meetings in order to encourage them to play an active role in the work of the Supervisory Board and its committees, thereby contributing to the Company's sustainability. Indeed, the fees available for allocation to the Supervisory Board members are allocated to all the Supervisory Board members according to their respective positions within the Supervisory Board and, if applicable, within its specialised committees; and their attendance to the meetings of the Supervisory Board. The granting of such variable remuneration to the Supervisory Board members depends on their actual attendance at the meetings: a pre-determined fee is granted to a Supervisory Board member each time he/she attends a meeting of the Supervisory Board or a meeting of its specialised committees where he/she is convened, as recorded by the corresponding minutes. The intervention of the Remuneration and Nomination Committee, the composition of which is predominantly independent, and the determination of an objective key of allocation of the overall amount approved by the shareholders beyond the members of the Supervisory Board guarantee the absence of conflict of interests during the approval process. That maximum amount of £200,00.00 was not in line with the remuneration policy revised and approved by the Supervisory Board during its meeting on 12 March 2023. As a result, the annual general meeting of the Company taking place on 18 Nov 2023 will be asked to approve an increased envelope of £127,000.00 Under the revised policy conditions, as from the 2019 financial year the global amount is allocated to the Supervisory Board Members under the following rules. The Legal department of (Z U A A H L) uses the following cumulative criteria to assess if an agreement as relating to ordinary transactions and entered into under normal terms and conditions do meet these conditions: the agreement relates to ordinary transactions, i.e. transactions that the Company usually carries out in the normal course of its business. The following criteria may be considered in assessing whether the agreement related to ordinary transaction or no: its repetition over time, the circumstances surrounding its conclusion, its legal significance, its economic consequences, and its duration; and the agreement is entered into normal terms and conditions, i.e. under the same conditions as usually practiced by the Company with third parties or by other companies operating in the same business line. The following criteria may be considered in assessing whether the agreement is entered into normal terms and conditions: the market price/practices and the general balance of the terms and conditions under which the agreement is concluded. An agreement is also deemed as relating to ordinary transactions and entered into normal terms and conditions when it is entered into by the Company and a company wholly hold, either directly or indirectly, by the Company. Provided the above-mentioned criteria are met, the Legal department verifies whether the examined agreement falls into one of the pre-defined categories of agreements which are deemed as relating to ordinary transactions and entered into normal terms and conditions. For instance, the following agreements have been deemed as relating to ordinary transactions and entered normal terms and conditions: agreements with low financial stakes, provided that the agreement is not of significant importance to contracting parties involved; and intra-Group agreements relating to the following transactions: provision of services (in particular human resources, IT, management, communication, finance, legal and accounting services), assistance with financing and re-invoicing of financial instruments, cash management or loan operations, tax integration known as “neutral” (insofar as it explicitly provides the modalities leading to neutrality, not only during the lifetime of the integration but also at the time of leaving the regime), acquisitions or sales of insignificant assets or securities, acquisitions or sales of receivables, transfer or loan of Company shares to a corporate officer in the performance of its duties, and facilities granted by an entity, once expenses have been invoiced at cost plus a margin to cover unallocated indirect costs, if any. This list is non exhaustive, and the presumption may be rebutted if the examined agreement was concluded under exceptional terms and conditions. All the agreements which have been qualified as relating to ordinary transactions and entered into under normal terms and conditions are reviewed by the department of (Z U A A H L) sc393133 on a regular basis, in particular when there are indications that the above-mentioned qualification criteria and/or categories of unregulated agreements may need to be revised.
for the Period Ended 31 January 2024