Pursuant to European regulation 1606/2002 of July 19, 2002, the consolidated financial statements of the Sodexo group have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as issued by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and approved by the European Union as of the year end. The texts adopted by the European Union are published in the Official Journal of the European Union and are available for consultation on EUR-Lex.
Information for the comparative year presented has been prepared using the same principles.
The Group does not apply IFRS standards that are not approved by the European Union at the closing date. Considering the Company closing date, the IFRS application dates as approved by the European Union have been the same as those for the IFRS standards published by the IASB.
Furthermore, the Group did not elect to early adopt non-mandatory new standards, amendments and interpretations for Fiscal 2023. The Group does not anticipate the application of non-mandatory new standards, amendments and interpretations to have a material impact on its consolidated financial statements.
The accounting policies used by the Group to prepare its consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023 are the same as those used for the consolidated financial statements as of August 31, 2022, with the exception of the policies impacted by the reorganization of On-site Services (see notes 4.1, 6.1 and 6.4). The other texts effective as of September 1, 2022 had no material impact on the consolidated financial statements of the Group.
The preparation of financial statements requires the Management of Sodexo and its subsidiaries to make estimates and assumptions which affect the amounts reported for assets, liabilities and contingent liabilities as of the date of preparation of the financial statements, and for revenues and expenses for the year.
These estimates and valuations are updated continuously based on past experience and on various other factors considered reasonable in view of current circumstances and are the basis for the assessments of the carrying amount of assets and liabilities.
Actual amounts may differ from these estimates if assumptions or circumstances change.
Significant items subject to such estimates and assumptions include the following:
As part of its Climate Strategy, the Group has set the objective of significantly reducing its environmental impact at every level of its value chain, in particular through the following actions:
The many initiatives undertaken by Sodexo aim, in particular, to achieve the objective of a -34% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2025 (as compared to the 2017 baseline), as part of its corporate responsibility roadmap Better Tomorrow 2025 defined in 2017.
The Group took into account the estimated costs of implementing these actions within the business plans drawn up for each operating segment when preparing its impairment tests.
The potential long-term impact of climate-related risks and opportunities on other components of business plans – primarily the effect on the cost of sales and the margin of possible disruptions to the Group’s supply chain due to physical risks after taking into account the anticipated impact of the mitigating measures – is considered via sensitivity analysis of the value in use estimated for the purposes of the impairment tests to the variation in operational assumptions, the results of which are presented in note 6.4.
The commitments made by the Group in relation to climate change had no other impact on the judgments and estimates used by Management in the context of the preparation of its consolidated financial statements as of August 31, 2023, in particular regarding the assessment of the useful life of property, plant and equipment, the estimate of their recoverable value or the recognition of liabilities.
