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Accounting and audit issues
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9Financial statement publication requirements

The Revised Spanish Corporate Enterprises Law provides that companies must file their financial statements at the Mercantile Registry corresponding to the place in which they have their registered office, within one month from their approval, together with a certificate of the resolutions adopted by the shareholders at the Annual General Meeting at which they were approved and the proposed distribution of profit, copies of the financial statements, directors’ report, non-financial information statement where applicable and auditors’ report (if the company is obliged to have its financial statements audited or if its financial statements were audited at the request of the minority shareholders). They are also required to indicate the beneficial owner of the company and contain all other requisite information.

In relation to the filing of the annual financial statements, on 24 May 2019, the Resolution of 22 May 2019, of the General Directorate of Registers and Notaries, amending Annexes I, II and III of Order JUS/319/2018, of 21 March, approving the new templates for the filing with the Mercantile Registry of the annual financial statements, was published, as well as the Resolution of 22 May 2019 of the General Directorate of Registers and Notaries, approving the new template for the filing with the Mercantile Registry of the consolidated annual financial statements of the parties obliged to publish them.

The Mercantile Registry is public and the corporate documentation filed thereat is publicized through certificates of the entries made by the registrars or through an uncertified extract, or through the issuance of copies of the entries made and of the documents filed at the Registry, all in accordance with the Spanish Commercial Code.

Also, publicly-traded companies must (pursuant to Securities Market Law 24/1988) present copies of their financial statements and of the related auditors’ report to the Spanish National Securities Market Commission.

The official registers and other documentation in the possession of the Mercantile Registry and the Spanish National Securities Market Commission are available to the public for their perusal.