327
Annual Report -
2013
-
Vivendi
4
Financial Report | Statutory Auditors’ Report on the Consolidated Financial Statements | Consolidated
Financial Statements |
Statutory Auditors’ Report on the Financial Statements
| Statutory Financial Statements
Statutory Auditors’ Report on the Financial Statements
1.
Statutory Auditors’ Report on the Financial Statements
This is a free translation into English of the Statutory Auditors’ Report on the financial statements issued in French and it is provided solely for the
convenience of English-speaking users.
The Statutory Auditors' Report includes information specifically required by French law in such reports, whether modified or not. This information
is presented below the audit opinion on the Financial Statements and includes an explanatory paragraph discussing the auditors’ assessments of
certain significant accounting and auditing matters. These assessments were considered for the purpose of issuing an audit opinion on the Financial
Statements taken as a whole and not to provide separate assurance on individual account balances, transactions or disclosures.
This report also includes information relating to the specific verification of information given in the Management Report and in the documents
addressed to the shareholders.
This report should be read in conjunction with and construed in accordance with French law and professional auditing standards applicable in France.
To the shareholders,
In compliance with the assignment entrusted to us by your Annual
General Shareholders’ Meetings, we hereby report to you, for the year
ended December 31, 2013, on:
the audit of the accompanying financial statements of Vivendi SA;
the justification of our assessments;
the specific verifications and information required by law.
These Financial Statements have been approved by your Management
Board. Our role is to express an opinion on these Financial Statements
based on our audit.
I.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We conducted our audit in accordance with professional standards
applicable in France; those standards require that we plan and perform
the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial
statements are free of material misstatement. An audit involves
performing procedures, using sampling techniques or other methods of
selection, to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures
in the financial statements. An audit also includes evaluating the
appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness
of accounting estimates made, as well as 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.
In our opinion, the Financial Statements give a true and fair view of the
assets and liabilities and of the financial position of the company as at
December 31, 2013 and of the results of its operations for the year then
ended in accordance with French accounting principles.
II.
Justification of our Assessments
In accordance with the requirements of article L. 823-9 of the French
Commercial Code (
Code de commerce
) relating to the justification of our
assessments, we bring to your attention the following matters:
■
■
Accounting Estimates
Interests in Equity Affiliates
Note 1 to the Financial Statements states that your company recognizes
impairment losses when the carrying amount of its financial assets
exceeds their book value. Based on the information available at the
date of this report, we assessed the approach adopted by your company
to determine book value of the financial assets. We also verified that
the information related to the depreciations of the interests in equity
affiliates presented in note “3 Net Financial Income” was appropriate.
Tax
Note 5 to the Financial Statements describes the accounting policies
used by your company to estimate and recognize tax assets and
liabilities, and tax position adopted by your company. We verified
the assumptions underlying the positions as at December 31, 2013
and ensured that Note 5 to the Financial Statements gives appropriate
information.
Provisions for Litigation
Notes 1 and 24 to the Financial Statements describe the methods
used to evaluate and recognize provisions for litigation. We assessed
the methods used by your group to list, calculate and account for such
provisions. We also assessed the data and assumptions underlying the
estimates made by the company. As stated in Note 1 to the Financial
Statements, some facts and circumstances may lead to changes
in estimates and assumptions which could have an impact upon the
reported amount of the provisions. We also ensured that Note “15.
Provisions” to the Financial Statements gives appropriate information.
These assessments were made as part of our audit of the Financial
Statements taken as a whole, and therefore contributed to the opinion
we formed which is expressed in the first part of this report.
