Ad hoc announcements are regulatory announcements which must be published pursuant to an obligation based on European Market Abuse Regulation (Article 17). This law requires an issuer of financial instruments to disclose important news which concerns the Company or its financial instruments and is not public knowledge, if the news might have a significant effect on the prices of those instruments. This is intended to prevent that news with relevance for the price are only known to "insiders", who might use this knowledge to their advantage.