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Independent Auditor's Report
Report on the audit of the financial statements 2020 included
in the Annual Report 2020
Heineken N.V.
Annual Report 2020
Introduction
Report of the
Executive Board
Report of the
Supervisory Board
Financial
Statements
Sustainability
Review
Other
Information
To the Annual General meeting of Heineken N.V.
Our opinion
We have audited the accompanying financial statements for the year ended 31 December 2020 of Heineken
N.V. ('The Company' or 'HEINEKEN'), based in Amsterdam. The financial statements include the consolidated
financial statements and The Company financial statements.
In our opinion:
- The accompanying consolidated financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position
of Heineken N.V. as at 31 December 2020, and of its result and its cash flows for 2020 in accordance with
International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union (EU-IFRS) and with Part 9
of Book 2 of the Dutch Civil Code.
- The accompanying Company financial statements give a true and fair view of the financial position of
Heineken N.V. as at 31 December 2020, and of its result for the year 2020 in accordance with Part 9 of Book 2
of the Dutch Civil Code.
The consolidated financial statements comprise:
- The consolidated statement of financial position as at 31 December 2020.
- The following consolidated statements for the year ended 31 December 2020: the income statement, the
statements of comprehensive income, changes in equity and cash flows.
- The notes comprising a summary of the significant accounting policies and other explanatory information.
The company financial statements comprise:
- The Company balance sheet as at 31 December 2020.
- The Company income statement for the year ended 31 December 2020.
- The notes comprising a summary of the significant accounting policies and other explanatory information.
Basis for our opinion
We conducted our audit in accordance with Dutch law, including the Dutch Standards on Auditing.
Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the "Our responsibilities for the audit of
the financial statements" section of our report.
We are independent of Heineken N.V. in accordance with the EU Regulation on specific requirements
regarding statutory audit of public-interest entities, the Wet toezicht accountantsorganisaties (Wta,
Audit firms supervision act), the Verordening inzake de onaffiankelijkheid van accountants bij assurance-
opdrachten (ViO, Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, a regulation with respect to independence)
and other relevant independence regulations in the Netherlands. Furthermore, we have complied with the
Verordening gedrags- en beroepsregels accountants (VGBA, Dutch Code of Ethics).
We believe the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for
our opinion.
Materiality
Based on our professional judgement we determined the materiality for the financial statements as a whole
at €140 million (2019: €200 million). The decrease of 30% compared to 2019 is predominantly a result of the
impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the financial statements of Heineken N.V. The materiality of 2020 is
ultimately based on different materiality benchmarks including the three year average of profit before tax,
consolidated revenues and total assets as compared to a singular benchmark of 7% of profit before tax in
2019. We have also taken into account misstatements and/or possible misstatements that in our opinion are
material for the users of the financial statements for qualitative reasons. Based on our professional judgement
we consider revenue and income-based measures as the most appropriate basis to determine materiality.
Audits of group entities (components) were performed using materiality levels determined by the judgement
of the group audit team, having regard to the materiality of the consolidated financial statements.
Component materiality did not exceed €42 million and for the majority of the components materiality is
significantly less than this amount.
We agreed with the supervisory board that misstatements in excess of 7 million, which are identified during
the audit, would be reported to them, as well as smaller misstatements that in our view must be reported on
qualitative grounds.
Scope of the group audit
Heineken N.V. is at the head of a group of entities. The financial information of this group is included in the
consolidated financial statements of Heineken N.V
Because we are ultimately responsible for our opinion, we are also responsible for directing, supervising and
performing the group audit. In this respect we have determined the nature and extent of the audit procedures
to be carried out for the group entities (components). Decisive were size and/or risk profile of the components.
On this basis, we selected components for which an audit or review had to be carried out on the complete set
of financial information or specific items.
Our group audit mainly focused on significant group entities in terms of size and financial interest or where
significant risks or complex activities were present, leading to full scope audits performed for 28 components
including 3 non-consolidated components.
We have performed audit procedures ourselves at Heineken N.V., corporate entities and the operations in
the Netherlands. Furthermore, we performed audit procedures at group level on areas such as consolidation,
disclosures, impairment testing for goodwill and other long-term assets, joint ventures, financial
instruments, acquisitions and divestments. Specialists were involved amongst others in the areas of treasury,
information technology, tax, accounting, pensions and valuations. For selected component audit teams,
the group audit team provided detailed written instructions, which, in addition to communicating the
requirements of component audit teams, detailed significant audit areas and information obtained centrally
relevant to the audit of individual components including awareness for risk related to management override
of controls.
