German Public Auditor’s Responsibilities for the Assurance Engagement on the Combined Non-Financial Reporting

Our objective is to express a limited assurance conclusion, based on the assurance engagement we have conducted, on whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the Consolidated Non-Financial Reporting has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the applicable German legal and European requirements and the specifying criteria presented by the executive directors of the Company and to issue an assurance report that includes our assurance conclusion on the Combined Non-Financial Reporting. As part of a limited assurance engagement in accordance with ISAE 3000 (Revised), we exercise professional judgement and maintain professional scepticism. We also

• obtain an understanding of the process used to prepare the Consolidated Non-Financial Reporting.
• identify disclosures where a material misstatement due to fraud or error is likely to arise, design and perform procedures to address these disclosures and obtain limited assurance to support the assurance conclusion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting a material misstatement resulting from error, as fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions, misrepresentations or the override of internal control.
• consider the forward-looking information, including the appropriateness of the underlying assumptions. There is a substantial unavoidable risk that future events will differ materially from the forward-looking information.