In accordance with Varma’s Articles of Association, the General Meeting elects an Auditor and, unless the Auditor is an audit company, a Deputy Auditor. The Annual General Meeting also elects a verifier for sustainability reporting. In accordance with Varma’s Articles of Association, the 2024 General Meeting elected one Auditor, which is an audit company, for the Company. The elected auditor also verified the sustainability reporting. The Auditors’ term ends at the end of the next Annual General Meeting following their election.
Under the legislation in force concerning auditing, the Auditors’ duty is to audit Varma’s accounting records, Financial Statements, Consolidated Financial Statements and governance. The verification of sustainability reporting concerns the information included in the Board of Directors’ report that Varma has presented in its Sustainability Statement. The audit and verification of the Sustainability Statement shall be carried out in accordance with good auditing practice.
It is the responsibility of the sustainability reporting verifier to perform a verification assignment to obtain limited assurance as to whether the consolidated sustainability report contains material misstatements due to fraud or error.
The Auditor reports on its work, observations and conclusions in the Auditors’ Report addressed to the Annual General Meeting. The sustainability reporting verifier reports to the Annual General Meeting in the Sustainability Statement Verification Report. In addition to this, the Auditor reports on its observations concerning internal control, financial reporting and other auditing measures to the Board of Directors’ Audit Committee, to the Board of Directors, to the Supervisory Board, to executive management and to the supervisory authority.
The Auditor provides the Board of Directors annually with written confirmation of its independence, required under the legislation in force. The Company’s Board of Directors assesses the independence of the Auditor each year.
The Annual General Meeting on March 11, 2025, elected the auditing firm Ernst & Young Oy as the auditor for the financial year 2025, with Kristina Sandin, Authorized Public Accountant and Authorized Sustainability Auditor as chief auditor according to EY's notification. In accordance with the decision of the Annual General Meeting, Ernst & Young Oy will also verify the sustainability statement for 2025. Kristina Sandin has been the chief auditor since the fiscal year 2024.
Remuneration paid to the Auditor for statutory auditing in 2024 was EUR 324,161, of which the share for the assurance of sustainability reporting was EUR 62,525. Remuneration paid to Ernst & Young Oy for other expert services totalled EUR 55,755 in 2024.