Report on the Consolidated Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated financial statements of
WIENER STÄDTISCHE Versicherung AG
VIENNA INSURANCE GROUP, Vienna,
for the financial year from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2008. These consolidated financial statements comprise the balance sheet as at 31 December 2008, and the income statement, statement of changes in equity and cash flow statement for the year ended 31 December 2008, and a summary of significant accounting policies and other explanatory notes.
Management’s Responsibility for the Consolidated Financial Statements
Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these consolidated financial statements in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU. This responsibility includes: designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; selecting and applying appropriate accounting policies; and making accounting estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances.
Auditor’s Responsibility
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audit. We conducted our audit in accordance with laws and regulations applicable in Austria and in accordance with International Standards on Auditing, issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). Those standards require that we comply with ethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement.
An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. The procedures selected depend on the auditor’s judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the auditor considers internal control relevant to the entity’s preparation and fair presentation of the consolidated financial statements 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 entity’s internal control. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements.
We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our audit opinion.
Opinion
Our audit did not give rise to any objections. Based on the results of our audit in our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the group as of 31 December 2008, and of its financial performance and its cash flows for the financial year from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2008 in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the EU.
Report on the Consolidated Management Report
Laws and regulations applicable in Austria require us to perform audit procedures whether the consolidated management report is consistent with the consolidated financial statements and whether the other disclosures made in the consolidated management report do not give rise to misconception of the position of the group.
In our opinion, the consolidated management report for the group is consistent with the consolidated financial statements.
PwC INTER-TREUHAND GmbH
Wirtschaftsprüfungs- und Steuerberatungsgesellschaft
Günter Wiltschek
Certified Public Accountant
Vienna, 17 March 2009
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