204
Independent Auditor’s Report
Introduction
Amsterdam, February 13, 2024
Deloitte Accountants B.V.
M.J. van der Vegte
Sustainability
Review
Other
Information
Financial
Statements
Report
of the
Supervisory
Board
Report
of the
Executive
Board
- Identifying and assessing the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or
error, designing and performing audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtaining audit evidence that is
sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement
resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional
omissions, misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
- Obtaining an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit 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
Company's internal control.
- Evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates and
related disclosures made by the Executive Board.
- Concluding on the appropriateness of the Executive Board's use of the going concern basis of accounting, and
based on the audit evidence obtained, whether a material uncertainty exists related to events or conditions that
may cast significant doubt on the Company's ability to continue as a going concern. If we conclude that a
material uncertainty exists, we are required to draw attention in our auditor's report to the related disclosures in
the financial statements or, if such disclosures are inadequate, to modify our opinion. Our conclusions are based
on the audit evidence obtained up to the date of our auditor's report. However, future events or conditions may
cause the Company to cease to continue as a going concern.
- Evaluating the overall presentation, structure, and content of the financial statements, including the disclosures.
- Evaluating whether the financial statements represent the underlying transactions and events in a manner that
achieves fair presentation.
Because we are ultimately responsible for the 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 group entities. Decisive were the size and/or the risk profile of the group entities or operations.
On this basis, we selected group entities for which an audit or review had to be carried out on the complete set of
financial information or specific items.
We communicate with the Supervisory Board regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of
the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant findings in internal control that we identified
during our audit. In this respect we also submit an additional report to the audit committee in accordance with
Article 11 of the EU Regulation on specific requirements regarding statutory audit of public-interest entities. The
information included in this additional report is consistent with our audit opinion in this auditor's report.
From the matters communicated with the Supervisory Board, we determine the key audit matters: those matters
that were of most significance in the audit of the financial statements. We describe these matters in our
auditor's report unless law or regulation precludes public disclosure about the matter or when, in extremely rare
circumstances, not communicating the matter is in the public interest.
We provide the Supervisory Board with a statement that we have complied with relevant ethical requirements
regarding independence, and to communicate with them all relationships and other matters that may
reasonably be thought to bear on our independence, and where applicable, related safeguards.
We have exercised professional judgement and have maintained professional scepticism throughout the audit,
in accordance with Dutch Standards on Auditing, ethical requirements and independence requirements. Our
audit included among others:
Heineken
N.V.
Annual
Report
2023
