Limited Assurance Report of the Independent Auditor regarding Sustainability Information1

To the METRO AG, Düsseldorf

We have performed an independent limited assurance engagement on quantitative disclosures on sustainability information (further “Report”) of METRO AG, Düsseldorf, (further “Company”) for the period from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023 of METRO AG, published online at www.metroag.de/cr-kpi-report-2022-23.

It was not part of our engagement to review references to external websites and information sources in the Report.

Management’s Responsibility

The legal representatives of the Company are responsible for the preparation of the Report and the determination and presentation of the qualitative and quantitative disclosures on sustainability information in accordance with the Reporting Criteria. METRO AG applies the sustainability reporting criteria set out in the METRO AG Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (further: “Reporting Criteria”).

The responsibility of the legal representatives includes the selection and application of appropriate methods to prepare the non-financial reporting and the use of assumptions and estimates for individual qualitative and quantitative sustainability disclosures which are reasonable under the circumstances. Furthermore, the legal representatives are responsible for the internal controls they deem necessary for the preparation of the Report that is free of material misstatement, whether due to fraud (i.e., fraudulent reporting on sustainability) or error.

Independence and Quality Assurance of the Assurance Practitioner’s Firm

In performing this engagement, we applied the legal provisions and professional pronouncements regarding independence and quality assurance, in particular the Professional Code for German Public Auditors and Chartered Accountants (in Germany) and the quality assurance standard of the German Institute of Public Auditors (Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer, IDW) regarding quality assurance requirements in audit practice (IDW QS 1).

Practitioner’s Responsibility

Our responsibility is to express a conclusion with limited assurance on the quantitative disclosures on sustainability information in the Report based on our assurance engagement.

We conducted our assurance engagement in the form of a limited assurance engagement in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): “Assurance Engagements other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information”, published by IAASB.

Accordingly, we have to plan and perform the assurance engagement in such a way that we obtain limited assurance as to whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the quantitative disclosures on sustainability information published in the Report of the Company for the period from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023 have not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the Reporting Criteria.

In a limited assurance engagement, the procedures performed are less extensive than in a reasonable assurance engagement, and accordingly, a substantially lower level of assurance is obtained. The selection of the assurance procedures is subject to the professional judgment of the assurance practitioner.

In the course of our assurance engagement we have, among other things, performed the following assurance procedures and other activities:

  • A risk analysis, including media research, to identify relevant information about sustainability performance of METRO AG in the reporting period
  • Evaluation of the design and implementation of the systems and processes for determining, processing and monitoring of quantitative sustainability disclosures included in the scope of this engagement, including the consolidation of the data
  • Inquiries of personnel on group level who are responsible for determining the quantitative disclosures on sustainability information, the conduction of internal controls and consolidation of the disclosures
  • Evaluation of selected internal and external documents
  • Analytical evaluation of data and trends of quantitative disclosures which are reported by all sites on group level
  • Assessment of the overall presentation of the quantitative disclosures on sustainability information

In our opinion, we obtained sufficient and appropriate evidence for reaching a conclusion for the assurance engagement.

Assurance Opinion

Based on the assurance procedures performed and the evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the quantitative disclosures on sustainability information in the Report of METRO AG for the period from 1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023 has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the Reporting Criteria.

Restriction of Use/Clause on General Engagement Terms

This assurance report is solely addressed to METRO AG, Düsseldorf.

Our assignment for the METRO AG, Düsseldorf, and professional liability is governed by the General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüfer (German Public Auditors) and Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften (German Public Audit Firms) (Allgemeine Auftragsbedingungen für Wirtschaftsprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften) in the version dated 1 January 2017 (https://www.kpmg.de/bescheinigungen/lib/aab_english.pdf). By reading and using the information contained in this assurance report, each recipient confirms having taken note of provisions of the General Engagement Terms (including the limitation of our liability for negligence to EUR 4 million as stipulated in No. 9) and accepts the validity of the attached General Engagement Terms with respect to us.

Düsseldorf, 12 December 2023

KPMG AG Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

[Original German version signed by:]

Stauder Wirtschaftsprüfer
[German Public Auditor]

Brokof Wirtschaftsprüferin
[German Public Auditor]

1 Our engagement applied to the German version of the Report 2022 / 2023. This text is a translation of the Limited Assurance Report issued in German language, whereas the German text is authoritative.