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Rothschild & Co | Annual Report 2017
Statutory auditors’ report on the consolidated financial
statements for the nine-month period ended 31 December 2017
Statutory Auditors’ Responsibilities for
the Audit of the Consolidated Financial
Statements
OBJECTIVES AND AUDIT APPROACH
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 taken on the basis of these
consolidated financial statements.
As specified in Article L. 823-10-1 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 judgement
throughout the audit and furthermore:
• Identifies and assesses the risks of material misstatement of the
consolidated financial statements, whether due to fraud or error, designs
and performs audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtains
audit evidence considered to be sufficient and appropriate to provide a
basis for his 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.
• Obtains 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
internal control.
• Evaluates the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the
reasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures made
by management in the consolidated financial statements.
• Assesses the appropriateness of management’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. This assessment is based on the audit evidence
obtained up to the date of his audit report. However, future events or
conditions may cause the Company to cease to continue as a going
concern. If the statutory auditor concludes that a material uncertainty
exists, there is a requirement to draw attention in the audit report to the
related disclosures in the consolidated financial statements or, if such
disclosures are not provided or inadequate, to modify the opinion
expressed therein.
• Evaluates the overall presentation of the consolidated financial
statements and assesses whether these statements represent the
underlying transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair
presentation.
• Obtains sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding the financial
information of the entities or business activities within the Group to
express an opinion on the consolidated financial statements. The
statutory auditor is responsible for the direction, supervision and
performance of the audit of the consolidated financial statements and
for the opinion expressed on these consolidated financial statements.
Report to the audit committee
We submit a report to the Audit Committee which includes in particular a
description of the scope of the audit and the audit program implemented,
as well as the results of our audit. We also report, if any, significant
deficiencies in internal control regarding the accounting and financial
reporting procedures that we have identified.
Our report to the Audit Committee includes the risks of material
misstatement that, in our professional judgement, were of most significance
in the audit of the consolidated financial statements of the current period
and which are therefore the key audit matters, that we are required to
describe in this audit report.
We also provide the Audit Committee with the declaration provided for in
Article 6 of Regulation (EU) N° 537/2014, confirming our independence
within the meaning of the rules applicable in France such as they are set in
particular by Articles L. 822-10 to L. 822-14 of the French Commercial Code
(code de commerce) and in the French Code of Ethics (code de déontologie)
for statutory auditors. Where appropriate, we discuss with the Audit
Committee the risks that may reasonably be thought to bear on our
independence, and the related safeguards.
French original signed by
the statutory auditors
Paris La Défense, on the 13 March 2018
KPMG S.A.
Arnaud Bourdeille
Partner
Paris, on the 13 March 2018
Cailliau Dedouit et Associés
Jean-Jacques Dedouit
Partner