Auditor's Report
To: Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Heineken N.V.
Report on the financial statements
Management's responsibility
Auditor's responsibility
158 Annual Report 2009 - Heineken N.V.
Other information
We have audited the accompanying 2009 financial
statements of Heineken N.V., Amsterdam as set out on
pages 71 to 155 The financial statements consist of the
consolidated financial statements and the company
financial statements. The consolidated financial
statements comprise the consolidated statement
of financial position as at 31 December 2009, the
consolidated income statement, the consolidated
statements of comprehensive income, changes
in equity and cash flows for the year then ended,
and the notes, comprising a summary of significant
accounting policies and other explanatory
information. The company financial statements
comprise the company balance sheet as at
31 December 2009, the company profit and loss
account for the year then ended and the notes.
The Executive Board is responsible for the preparation
and fair presentation of the financial statements in
accordance with International Financial Reporting
Standards as adopted by the European Union and with
Part 9 of Book 2 of the Netherlands Civil Code, and for
the preparation of the report of the Executive Board in
accordance with Part 9 of Book 2 of the Netherlands
Civil Code. This responsibility includes: designing,
implementing and maintaining internal control
relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of
the financial statements that are free from material
misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; selecting
and applying appropriate accounting policies; and
making accounting estimates that are reasonable
in the circumstances.
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the
financial statements based on our audit. We conducted
our audit in accordance with Dutch law. This law
requires that we comply with ethical requirements
and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable
assurance whether the financial statements are free
from material misstatement.
An audit involves performing procedures to obtain
audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in
the financial statements. The procedures selected
depend on the auditor's judgment, including the
assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the
financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In
making those risk assessments, the auditor considers
internal control relevant to the entity's preparation
and fair presentation of the financial statements in
order to design audit procedures that are appropriate
in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of
expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the
entity's internal control. An audit also includes
evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies
used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates
made by management, as well as evaluating the
overall presentation of the financial statements.
We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained
is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our
audit opinion.
