Scope and boundary

Imperial has this year produced its third integrated annual report in its endeavour to integrate the financial and non-financial aspects of its reporting for a fuller understanding by key stakeholders, in line with the recommendations of the King III Report on Corporate Governance (King III) for South African reports. In response to stakeholder feedback, divisional disclosures are intended to give readers a better understanding of each of these businesses in their respective markets and a basis to measure progress against stated objectives.

This integrated annual report provides stakeholders with:

The directors are responsible for the content of this report and although all reasonable steps have been taken to ensure its accuracy, they can only provide reasonable assurance that reporting systems are accurate. We continue to enhance and refine our systems to monitor the accuracy, completeness and reliability of financial, operational, safety, health and environmental management information.

The summarised consolidated annual financial statements must be read in conjunction with the complete set of audited consolidated annual financial statements available on the website www.imperial.co.za or on the compact disc supplied with this report. The separate sustainability report combines the various safety, health and environmental matters dealt with throughout the integrated annual report and expands on them to give stakeholders a broader perspective.

Imperial has a number of operating divisions which are independently managed and operate within authority limits set by the board. Governance guidelines that are designed to be appropriate to each of our industries are laid down by the board and executive committee, and applies to our individual divisions.

Due to the decentralised management structure of the group and diverse nature of its operating businesses, information is recorded and reported in different formats. There is a standardised approach to consolidate the group’s financial information and the group has used its best endeavours to ensure that this report meets the material reporting needs of stakeholders. Our intention is to give readers a clearer understanding of our operations, the factors that drive them and the impact they have on the economic, social and physical environments in which we conduct our business.

Imperial’s businesses, situated in Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States of America are included in this report. Non-financial impacts related to entities not operationally controlled by the group are not included in the report.

Materiality

In choosing the topics included in the integrated report and the sustainability report, we considered the requirements and expectations of external and internal stakeholders and prioritised material topics and indicators, relevant to significant stakeholders. Materiality was established on an operational basis to provide meaningful and transparent information to stakeholders, focusing on matters that are of concern to stakeholders and which are of significant strategic relevance to Imperial.

We followed a stepped approach in identifying key stakeholders and the matters relevant to them, identifying matters reported in the media relative to Imperial and the industries in which we operate and identifying key matters relating to Imperial’s financial and non-financial performance during the year.

Reporting

We believe this report represents a balanced and reasonable picture of our organisation’s economic, environmental and social performance, covering all material topics and indicators.

Sustainability

According to the GRI framework, we have elected to rate our sustainability report at level C as we include a number of performance indicators with at least one from each section and a number of management disclosures on these indicators.

We have implemented a system to record non-financial data to improve the accuracy of this data. The internal audit department has now incorporated processes to check the controls and accuracy of the data captured and reported on.

King III

The group has applied all material recommendations of King III and the Board continually assesses the group’s practices against the recommendations in King III and will implement improvements on an ongoing basis which includes third party assurance of sustainability data. The group has documented its assessment of the 75 King III principles in a register which is available on the website at www.imperial.co.za.

Audit opinion

Our independent auditors, Deloitte and Touche, have issued an unmodified audit opinion on the consolidated annual financial statements and on these summarised consolidated annual financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2013 set out on pages 89 to 125. The audit was conducted in accordance with International Standards on Auditing. The unmodified audit opinion on the group’s consolidated annual financial statement is incorporated in the group’s consolidated annual financial statements.

Any reference to future financial performance included in this integrated report has not been reviewed or reported on by the group’s auditors.