Financial Report
Vetropack Group

Report of the statutory auditor on the consolidated financial statements

To the General Meeting of Vetropack Holding Ltd, Saint-Prex

Zurich, 8 March 2023

Opinion. We have audited the consolidated financial statements of Vetropack Holding Ltd and its subsidiaries (the Group), which comprise the consolidated statement of financial position as at 31 December 2022, the consolidated income statement, the consolidated statement of cash flows and the consolidated statement of changes in equity for the year then ended, and notes to the consolidated financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies.

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements (PDF version: pages 80 to 103 /online version: marked with the label “audited information”) give a true and fair view of the consolidated financial position of the Group as at 31 December 2022 and of its consolidated financial performance and its consolidated cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with Swiss GAAP FER and comply with Swiss law.

Basis for opinion. We conducted our audit in accordance with Swiss law and Swiss Standards on Auditing (SA-CH). Our responsibilities under those provisions and standards are further described in the “Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the consolidated financial statements” section of our report. We are independent of the Group in accordance with the provisions of Swiss law and the requirements of the Swiss audit profession, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements.

We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Key audit matters. Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgment, were of most significance in our audit of the consolidated financial statements of the current period. These matters were addressed in the context of our audit of the consolidated financial statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon, and we do not provide a separate opinion on these matters. For each matter below, our description of how our audit addressed the matter is provided in that context.

We have fulfilled the responsibilities described in the “Auditor's responsibilities for the audit of the consolidated financial statements” section of our report, including in relation to these matters. Accordingly, our audit included the performance of procedures designed to respond to our assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements. The results of our audit procedures, including the procedures performed to address the matters below, provide the basis for our audit opinion on the consolidated financial statements.

Tangible Assets

Area of focus. The balance sheet position “tangible assets” amounts to MCHF 661.6 as of 31 December 2022 (Prior Year: MCHF 593.4) and therefore represents approximately 54% of total assets. More than half of the tangible assets are production facilities, which are exposed to hard industrial operations. This leads to two significant management assessments. Firstly, the management has to assess the moment a machine is ready for use and therefore depreciation can start. Secondly, management has to estimate the useful life and challenge the estimations continuously. Furthermore, events during production can lead to unplanned impairment of machines. These events can have an impact on the consolidated profit as well as the consolidated equity.

Our audit response. We assessed and tested controls regarding design and operational effectiveness of asset purchase respectively recognition and valuation of tangible assets. Besides testing controls, we performed substantive procedures where we recalculated the depreciation rates, evaluated the appropriateness of tangible asset useful lives applied in the calculation of depreciation and searched for indications for impairment. Furthermore, we performed test of details regarding the recognition of tangible assets and assessed the timeliness of the transfer of assets in the course of construction.

Our audit procedures did not lead to any reservations concerning the recognition and measurement of the tangible assets.

Refer to consolidated Balance Sheet on page 80, Valuation Principles on page 87 as well as Note Nr. 5 on page 90 regarding the financial statement.

Other information. The Board of Directors is responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, but does not include the consolidated financial statements, the stand-alone financial statements, the remuneration report and our auditor’s reports thereon.

Our opinion on the consolidated financial statements does not cover the other information and we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the consolidated financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the consolidated financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated.

If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Board of Directors’ responsibilities for the consolidated financial statements. The Board of Directors is responsible for the preparation of the consolidated financial statements, which give a true and fair view in accordance with Swiss GAAP FER and the provisions of Swiss law, and for such internal control as the Board of Directors determines is necessary to enable the preparation of consolidated financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the consolidated financial statements, the Board of Directors is responsible for assessing the Group’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern, and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Board of Directors either intends to liquidate the Group or to cease operations, or has no realistic alternative but to do so.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the consolidated financial statements. Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue an auditor’s report that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with Swiss law and SA-CH will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these consolidated financial statements.

A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the consolidated financial statements is located on EXPERTsuisse’s website at: https://www.expertsuisse.ch/en/audit-report. This description forms an integral part of our report.

Report on other legal and regulatory requirements. In accordance with Art. 728a para. 1 item 3 CO and PS-CH 890, we confirm that an internal control system exists, which has been designed for the preparation of the consolidated financial statements according to the instructions of the Board of Directors.

We recommend that the consolidated financial statements submitted to you be approved.

Ernst & Young Ltd

Willy Hofstetter

Licensed audit expert
(Auditor in charge)

Marc Hegetschweiler

Licensed audit expert