Independent auditor’s report to the members of Vodafone Group Plc 125 Vodafone Group Plc Annual Report 2024 Strategic report Governance Financials
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Opinion In our opinion: – Vodafone Group Plc’s consolidated financial statements and separate Company financial statements (the “financial statements”) give a true and fair view of the state of the Group’s and of the Company’s affairs as at 31 March 2024 and of the Group’s profit for the year then ended; – the consolidated financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with UK adopted international accounting standards; – the Company financial statements have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and – the financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006. We have audited the financial statements of Vodafone Group Plc (the ‘Parent company’ or ‘Company’) and its subsidiaries (the ‘Group’) for the year ended 31 March 2024 which comprise: Group Company Consolidated statement of financial position as at 31 March 2024 Company statement of financial position as at 31 March 2024 Consolidated income statement for the year then ended Consolidated statement of cash flows for the year then ended Related notes 1 to 32 to the consolidated financial statements, including material accounting policy information The financial reporting framework that has been applied in the preparation of the consolidated financial statements is applicable law and UK adopted international accounting standards. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in the preparation of the Company financial statements is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards, including FRS 101 ‘Reduced disclosure framework’ (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). Basis for opinion We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our Company statement of changes in equity for the year then ended Related notes 1 to 11 to the Company financial statements including material accounting policy information Consolidated statement of comprehensive income/ (expense) for the year then ended Consolidated statement of changes in equity for the year then ended report. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.
Independence We are independent of the Group and Parent company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard as applied to listed public interest entities, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. The non-audit services prohibited by the FRC’s Ethical Standard were not provided to the Group or the Parent company and we remain independent of the Group and the Parent company in conducting the audit. Conclusions relating to going concern In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the directors’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate. Our evaluation of the directors’ assessment of the Group and Parent company’s ability to continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting included: – confirming our understanding of the directors’ going concern assessment process, including the controls over the review and approval of the budget and long-range plan; – assessing the appropriateness of the duration of the going concern assessment period to 30 June 2025 (“the going concern assessment period”) and considering the existence of any significant events or conditions beyond this period based on our procedures on the Group’s long-range plan and knowledge arising from other areas of the audit; – verifying inputs against board-approved forecasts and debt facility terms and reconciling the opening liquidity position to the balance sheet at 31 March 2024; – reviewing borrowing facilities to confirm both their availability to the Group and the forecast debt repayments through the going concern assessment period and to validate that there are no financial covenants in relation to any of the loan arrangements; – testing the assessment, including forecast liquidity, for clerical accuracy; – challenging whether assumptions made were reasonable and appropriately severe, in light of the Group’s relevant principal risks and uncertainties and our own independent assessment of those risks; – evaluating management’s historical forecasting accuracy and the consistency of the going concern assessment with information obtained from other areas of the audit, such as our audit procedures on the long-range plans, which underpin management’s goodwill impairment assessments and our procedures in relation to the businesses classified as held for sale within discontinued operations; – evaluating the identified mitigating actions available to respond to a severe downside scenario, and whether those actions are feasible and within the Group’s control; – challenging the appropriateness of management’s ‘reverse stress test’ downside scenario, to understand how severe conditions would have to be to breach liquidity and whether the reduction in EBITDAaL required has no more than a remote possibility of occurring when compared to historical financial performance; – performing independent sensitivity analysis on management’s assumptions, including applying incremental adverse cashflow sensitivities. These sensitivities included the impact of certain severe but plausible scenarios, evaluated as part of management’s work on the Group’s long term viability materialising within the going concern assessment period; and – assessing the appropriateness of the going concern disclosure on page 124.
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