We have also performed, in accordance with professional standards applicable in France, the specific verifications required by laws and regulations of the information relating to the Group given in the Board of Directors’ management report.
We have no matters to report as to its fair presentation and its consistency with the consolidated financial statements.
We attest that the consolidated non-financial statement required by Article L. 225-102-1 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) is included in the information relating to the Group given in the management report, it being specified that, in accordance with Article L.823-10 of said Code, we have verified neither the fair presentation nor the consistency with the consolidated financial statements of the information contained therein. This information should be reported on by an independent third party.
We have also verified, in accordance with the professional standard applicable in France relating to the procedures performed by the statutory auditors regarding the annual and consolidated financial statements prepared in the European single electronic format, that the preparation of the consolidated financial statements intended to be included in the annual financial report mentioned in Article L. 451-1-2, of the French Monetary and Financial Code (Code monétaire et financier), prepared under the responsibility of the Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer, complies with the single electronic format defined in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No. 2019/815 of 17 December 2018. Regarding consolidated financial statements, our work includes verifying that the tagging thereof complies with the format defined in the above-mentioned regulation.
On the basis of our work, we conclude that the preparation of the consolidated financial statements intended to be included in the annual financial report complies, in all material respects, with the European single electronic format.
Due to the technical limitations inherent to the block-tagging of the consolidated financial statements according to the European single electronic format, the content of certain tags of the notes may not be rendered identically to the accompanying consolidated financial statements.
Furthermore, we have no responsibility to verify that the consolidated financial statements that will ultimately be included by your Company in the annual financial report filed with the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers) agree with those on which we have performed our work.
We were appointed as statutory auditors of Sodexo by the annual general meeting held on February 4, 2003 for KPMG S.A. and on December 19, 2022 for ERNST & YOUNG Audit.
As at August 31, 2024, KPMG S.A. was in its twenty-second year of total uninterrupted engagement and ERNST & YOUNG Audit was in its second year.
Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union and for such internal control as Management determines is necessary to enable the preparation of consolidated financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
In preparing the consolidated financial statements, Management is responsible for assessing the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless it is expected to liquidate the Company or to cease operations.
The Audit Committee is responsible for monitoring the financial reporting process and the effectiveness of internal control and risk management systems and where applicable, its internal audit, regarding the accounting and financial reporting procedures.
The consolidated financial statements were approved by the Board of Directors.
Our role is to issue a report on the consolidated financial statements. Our objective is to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with professional standards will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users made on the basis of these consolidated financial statements.
As specified in Article L. 821-55 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce), our statutory audit does not include assurance on the viability of the Company or the quality of management of the affairs of the Company.
As part of an audit conducted in accordance with professional standards applicable in France, the statutory auditor exercises professional judgment throughout the audit and furthermore:
