Annual Report 2017

196

Rothschild & Co | Annual Report 2017

Statutory auditors’ report on the financial statements for the

nine month-period ended 31 December 2017

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

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 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 financial statements or, if such disclosures are not

provided or inadequate, to modify the opinion expressed therein.

• Evaluates the overall presentation of the financial statements and

assesses whether these statements represent the underlying

transactions and events in a manner that achieves fair presentation.

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 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