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Independent assurance practitioner’s report1

To the Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA, Hamburg

We have performed a limited assurance engagement on the Corporate Responsibility Report (further “CR-Report”), of Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KG, Hamburg, (further “Company” or “Asklepios Kliniken”), which covers all healthcare facilities of Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA, Hamburg, with the exception of MediClin AG including its subsidiaries and RHÖN-KLINIKUM Aktiengesellschaft including its subsidiaries, for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2023.

The external documentation sources or expert opinions mentioned in the CR Report are not subject of our audit.

Responsibilities of Management

The legal representatives of the Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA are responsible for the preparation of the CR-Report for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2023 in accordance with provisions stated in the CR Report in the section “About this report” (hereinafter referred to as “reporting criteria”), which are based on the requirements of Section 315c HGB for non-financial reporting.

This responsibility of the legal representatives of the company includes the selection and application of appropriate methods to prepare the non-financial reporting and the use of assumptions and estimates for individual disclosures which are reasonable under the given circumstances. Furthermore, the legal representatives are responsible for the internal controls they deem necessary for the preparation of the CR-Report that is free from material misstatements, whether due to fraud (manipulation of the combined separate non-financial report) or error.

Independence and Quality Assurance on the Part of the Auditing Firm

In performing this engagement, we applied the legal provisions and professional pronouncements regarding independence and quality assurance, in particular the Professional Code for German Public Auditors and Chartered Accountants (in Germany) and the IDW Standard on Quality Management 1: Requirements for Quality Management in Audit Firms (IDW QMS 1 (09.2022)).

Responsibility of the Assurance Practitioner

It is our responsibility to express a conclusion on the CR-Report based on our work performed within a limited assurance engagement.

We conducted our work in the form of a limited assurance engagement in accordance with the International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised): “Assurance Engagements other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information”, published by IAASB. Accordingly, we have to plan and perform the assurance engagement to obtain limited assurance about whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the CR-Report of the Company has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the Reporting Criteria.

In a limited assurance engagement, the procedures performed are less extensive than in a reasonable assurance engagement, and accordingly, a substantially lower level of assurance is obtained. The selection of the assurance procedures is subject to the professional judgment of the assurance practitioner.

Within the scope of our engagement we performed, amongst others, the following procedures:

  • Inquiries of group-level personnel who are responsible for the materiality analysis in order to understand the processes for determining material topics and respective reporting boundaries for Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA, Hamburg;
  • A risk assessment, including a media analysis, of relevant information about the sustainability performance of Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA, Hamburg, in the reporting period;
  • Assessment of the conception and implementation of systems and processes for the determination, processing and monitoring of Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA, Hamburg;
  • Inquiries of personnel at group level who are responsible for the determination, consolidation and delimitation to the non-covered subgroups as well as the implementation of internal control procedures with regard to the relevant data, including the accompanying explanations;
  • Inspection of selected internal and external documents;
  • Analytical procedures for the evaluation of data and of the trends of quantitative disclosures as reported at group level by all sites;
  • Assessment of local data collection, validation and reporting processes and the reliability of reported data through a sample survey at one location;
  • Assessment of the overall presentation of the disclosures in the CR-Report.

Assurance Opinion

Based on the procedures performed and the evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the Corporate Responsibility Report of Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA, which covers all healthcare facilities of Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA, Hamburg, with the exception of MediClin AG including its subsidiaries and RHÖN-KLINIKUM Aktiengesellschaft including its subsidiaries, for the period from January 1 to December 31, 2023 has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the reporting criteria.

We do not express an opinion on the external documentation sources or expert opinions referred to in the Corporate Responsibility Report 2023.

Restriction of Use/General Engagement Terms

This assurance report is solely addressed to Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA, Hamburg, and intended exclusively for them.

Our assignment for Asklepios Kliniken GmbH & Co. KGaA, Hamburg, and professional liability is governed by the General Engagement Terms for Wirtschaftsprüfer and Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften (Allgemeine Auftragsbedingungen für Wirtschaftsprüfer und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaften) in the version dated January 1, 2017 (https://www.kpmg.de/bescheinigungen/lib/aab_english.pdf). By reading and using the information contained in this assurance report, each recipient confirms having taken note of provisions of the General Engagement Terms (including the limitation of our liability for negligence to EUR 4 million as stipulated in No. 9) and accepts the validity of the attached General Engagement Terms with respect to us.

Frankfurt am Main, April 3, 2024

KPMG AG
Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft
[Original German version signed by:]

Niels Beyer
Wirtschaftsprüfer
[German Public Auditor]

Sabine Brandt
Wirtschaftsprüfer
[German Public Auditor]

1Our engagement applied to the German version of the separate non-financial group report 2023. This text is a translation of the Independent Assurance Report issued in German, whereas the German text is authoritative.