Reasonable assurance report of the independent auditor on the non-financial information

Our opinion

We have performed a reasonable assurance engagement on the non-financial information in the Annual Report 2023 (hereafter: 'Annual Report') of PostNL N.V. based in The Hague, the Netherlands (hereafter: PostNL or the Company) for the year ending 31 December 2023.

In our opinion, the non-financial information in the Annual Report presents fairly, in all material respects,:

• The policy with regard to sustainability matters; and
• The business operations, events and achievements in that area in 2023

In accordance with the criteria as included in the section 'Criteria'

The non-financial information is included in the following sections of the Annual Report:

• 'Introduction';
• ‘Business Report’ excluding the following chapters:
  • ‘EU taxonomy on sustainable activities’ included in the 'Environmental value' chapter;
  • ‘Financial value’,
  • 'Outlook 2024',
  • ‘Risk and opportunity management’; and
  • ‘Regulatory developments’;
• The ‘Non-financial statements’ included in the ‘Performance statements’ section; and
• Appendix 3 'Glossary and definitions'.

Basis for our opinion

We performed our reasonable engagement on the non-financial information in accordance with Dutch law, including Dutch Standard 3810N ‘Assurance-opdrachten inzake 'duurzaamheidsverslaggeving’ (Assurance engagements relating to sustainability reporting). Our responsibilities under this standard are further described in the section ‘Our responsibilities for the assurance engagement on the non-financial information’ section of our Assurance Report.

We are independent of PostNL in accordance with the ‘Verordening inzake de onafhankelijkheid van accountants bij assurance-opdrachten’ (ViO, Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, a regulation with respect to independence). Furthermore, we have complied with the ‘Verordening gedrags- en beroepsregels accountants’ (VGBA, Dutch Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants).

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

Criteria

The non-financial information needs to be read and understood together with the criteria. PostNL is solely responsible for selecting and applying these criteria, taking into account applicable law and regulations related to reporting.

The criteria applied for the preparation of the non-financial information are the Sustainability Reporting Standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI Standards) as listed in the GRI Content Index and the internally developed supplemental reporting criteria of PostNL for reporting elements which are not covered in GRI as disclosed in the ‘Non-financial statements’ included in the ‘Performance statements’ of the Annual Report. The non-financial information is prepared with reference to the GRI standards.

The comparability of non-financial information between entities and over time may be affected by the absence of an uniform practice on which to draw, to evaluate and measure this information. This allows for the application of different, but acceptable, measurement techniques.

Consequently, the non-financial information needs to be read and understood together with the criteria applied.

Materiality

Based on our professional judgement we determined materiality levels for each relevant part of the non-financial information as included in the Annual Report. When evaluating our materiality levels, we have taken into account quantitative and qualitative aspects as well as the relevance of information for both stakeholders and the Company.

We agreed with the Supervisory Board that misstatements which are identified during the assurance engagement and which in our view must be reported on quantitative or qualitative grounds, would be reported to them.

Key assurance matters

Key assurance matters are those matters that, in our professional judgement, were of most significance in our assurance engagement on the non-financial information. No key assurance matters were identified in our assurance engagement on the non-financial information.

Scope of the assurance engagement of the group

PostNL is the parent company of a group of entities. The non-financial information incorporates the consolidated information of this group of entities to the extent as specified in the ‘Non-financial statements’ of the Annual Report.

Our group assurance procedures for the assurance engagement of the group consisted of both assurance procedures at group level (consolidated) as well as at group components.

We have determined the scope of our assurance procedure, in such a way that we perform sufficient procedures enabling us to provide an opinion on the non-financial information. We considered, among other things, the management structure of the group, the nature of the activities of the group components, the business processes and controls and the industry in which the entity operates.

Limitations to the scope of our assurance engagement

The non-financial information includes prospective information such as ambitions, strategy, plans, expectations , estimates, and risk assessments. Inherently the actual future results are uncertain. Prospective information relates to events and actions that have not yet occurred and may never occur. We do not provide any assurance on the assumptions and achievability of this prospective information.

The references to external sources or websites in the non-financial information are not part of the non-financial information, was included in our scope of our assurance engagement. We therefore do not provide assurance on this information.

Our opinion is not modified in respect to these matters.

Responsibilities of the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board for the non-financial information

The Board of Management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the non-financial information in accordance with the criteria as described in the section ‘Criteria’, including the identification of stakeholders and the definition of key material topics.

The Board of Management is also responsible for selecting and applying the criteria and for determining that these criteria are suitable for the legitimate information needs of stakeholders, considering applicable law and regulations related to reporting. The choices made by The Board of Management regarding the scope of the non-financial information and the reporting policy are summarized in the chapter ‘Non-financial statements’ of the Annual Report.

Furthermore, the Board of Management is responsible for such internal control as it determines is necessary to enable the preparation of the non-financial information that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

The Supervisory Board is, among other things, responsible for overseeing the PostNL reporting process.

Our responsibilities for the assurance engagement of the non-financial information

Our responsibility is to plan and perform the assurance engagement in a manner that allows us to obtain sufficient and appropriate assurance evidence for our conclusion.

Our assurance engagement has been performed with a high, but not absolute, level of assurance, which means we may not have detected all material fraud and errors during our assurance engagement.

We apply the ‘Nadere Voorschriften Kwaliteitssystemen’ (NVKS, Regulations for Quality management systems) and accordingly maintain a comprehensive system of quality management including documented policies and procedures regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

Our reasonable assurance engagement included among others:

• Performing an analysis of the external environment and obtaining an understanding of relevant sustainability themes and issues, and the characteristics of the Company;
• Evaluating the appropriateness of the criteria applied, their consistent application and related disclosures in the non-financial information. This includes the evaluation of the Company’s materiality assessment and the reasonableness of estimates made by the Board of Management;
• Obtaining and understanding the systems and processes for collecting, reporting, and consolidating the non-financial information, including obtaining an understanding of the internal control environment relevant to our assurance engagement, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion on the effectiveness of the company’s internal control;
• Taking into consideration the procedures performed by Internal Audit of PostNL;
• Identifying and assessing the risks if the non-financial information is misleading or unbalanced, or contains material misstatements, whether due to fraud or errors. Designing and performing further assurance procedures responsive to those risk and obtaining assurance evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion. These procedures consisted amongst others of:
  • Obtaining inquiries with management and relevant staff of PostNL at group and component level responsible for the sustainability strategy, policies and results;
  • Reading minutes of the meetings of the Board of Management, the Supervisory Board and of other meetings that are important for the content of the sustainability reporting;
  • Obtaining inquiries from relevant staff responsible for providing the information for, carrying out internal control procedures on, and consolidating the data in the non-financial information;
  • Reviewing the suitability of assumptions and sources from third parties used for the calculation underlying the impact data;
  • Obtaining assurance evidence that the non-financial information reconciles with underlying records of the company;
  • Evaluating relevant internal and external documentation, on a test basis, to determine the reliability of the information in the non-financial information;
  • Evaluating the data and trends.
• Evaluating the overall presentation and balanced content of the non-financial information;
• Considering whether the non-financial information as a whole, including the sustainability matters and disclosures, is clearly and adequately disclosed in accordance with applicable criteria.

We communicate with the Board of Management and the Supervisory Board regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the assurance engagement and significant findings, including any significant finding in internal control that we identify during our assurance engagement.

The Hague, 26 February 2024

KPMG Accountants N.V.

R.R.J. Smeets RA