CHAIRMAN’S STATEMENT

2012 has been another strong year for Unilever, building further on the good performance in 2011. Despite a challenging economic environment, the Group continued to grow above its markets, delivering strong top and bottom line results. The transformation of Unilever to a sustainable growth company is well on track.

Unilever’s sustained performance in these difficult markets is testament to the strength and clarity of the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) and the Compass strategy developed by Paul Polman and his management team. The USLP is providing the Group with an inspiring and highly differentiated growth model, which is driving performance, energising employees and increasingly being recognised externally as a standard for responsible business. The Boards have been impressed again this year by the ways in which the strategy is being brought to life in different parts of the Group, and the above average results versus our peer group is testimony to this.

Maintaining good governance

Good governance is essential for the long-term success of the Group, and I am pleased to introduce our Corporate Governance report on pages 44 to 81, which sets out how Unilever conducts its operations in accordance with internationally accepted principles of good corporate governance. We are very alert to the current environment around the remuneration arrangements for Executive Directors and we remain committed to linking pay to the longer-term objectives of Unilever and, in turn, the longer-term interests of shareholders. We set out more details on our approach in our Directors’ Remuneration Report on pages 62 to 81.

Strengthening the Boards

A key role for the Boards is to provide adequately for their succession, and l am very pleased that Laura Cha, Mary Ma and

John Rishton have agreed to join us and are being proposed for election at the AGMs in 2013. Unilever continues to appoint directors based on their wide-ranging experience, backgrounds, skills, knowledge and insight, and I am confident that these three directors will further strengthen the diversity of gender and experience already on the Boards and improve it further. Additional information on these directors and the succession planning process undertaken is given in the Corporate Governance report and their biographies will be included in the 2013 AGM Notices which will be available on our website at www.unilever.com/agm from 2 April 2013. Sunil Bharti Mittal will not offer himself for re-election at the 2013 AGMs. I would like to thank Sunil for his contribution to Unilever as a Non-Executive Director.

We are committed to continuing to improve diversity at Board level and I am pleased that already 25% of Directors on your Boards are women. Last year we stated our aim to increase that percentage, and the introduction of these Non-Executive Directors, should they be elected, will achieve this.

Board evaluation

Following the external evaluation in 2011, our internal process this year suggested minor recommendations to the operation of the Boards and confirmed that no major modifications were required. The process concluded that overall the Boards continued to operate in an effective manner. More information on previous evaluations and this year’s agreed actions is found within the Corporate Governance report.

Shareholder return

2012 has been yet another reliable year under our dividend policy. Unilever’s consistent improvement in profits has enabled us to pay a steady increase in dividends year on year. The full-year dividend in 2012 rose to €0.954 – an 8% increase from 2011.

Finally, on behalf of the Boards, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of Unilever’s 173,000 employees across the world. They have delivered exceptional

1  Michael Treschow

Chairman               

results in difficult economic conditions while at the same time reinforcing Unilever’s growing reputation as a business committed to sustainable and equitable growth.

Michael Treschow

Chairman

Our evolving business model

With scale comes responsibility – so we must continue to play a leadership role in seeking solutions for global transformational issues like climate change, food security and poverty alleviation. This is why I agreed to join the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel to review the post-2015 Millennium Development Goals.

Our approach is gaining widespread external recognition. We were again named sector

leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes for the 14th consecutive year; listed as the world’s fifth most desired company to work for by Linkedln; and recognised for our work on diversity by The Catalyst organisation. We are proud now to be seen as the preferred employer in many of the key markets in which we operate.

We are on track to become a sustainable growth company. But this would not be possible without the dedication and hard

work of our 173,000 colleagues and many partners around the world. They are demonstrating the power of purpose, making Unilever again ‘fit to win’.

Warm regards

Paul Polman

Chief Executive Officer

OPERATIONAL

HIGHLIGHTS

In 2012, we continued to make good progress in the transformation of Unilever to a sustainable growth company. We exceeded €50 billion turnover, with all regions and categories contributing to growth. Despite further cost increases and volatile commodity markets, our gross margin rose by 0.1 percentage points and our core operating margin by 0.3 percentage points, reflecting the disciplined implementation of our strategy.

OUR

BUSINESS

MODEL

Our business model is designed to deliver sustainable growth. For us, sustainability is integral to how we do business. In a world where temperatures are rising, water is scarce, energy is expensive, sanitation is poor in many areas, and food supplies are uncertain and expensive, we have both a duty and an opportunity to address these issues in the way we do business.

The inputs to the model, like those of all major packaged goods manufacturers, are threefold: brands; people; and operations. These map directly on to our Compass ‘Winning with’ pillars – both continuous improvement and the market place pillars support the operations strand of the model.

The differentiator in our business model is our USLP and the goal of sustainable living.

The outputs of the model are threefold: sustained growth; lower environmental impact; and positive social impact. These align directly with our Vision statement.

The diagram below represents our virtuous circle of growth. It summarises, simply, how we derive profit from the application of our business model.

Our brands

Strong brands and innovation are central to our ambition to double in size. We are investing in brand equity, finding and strengthening the connections between consumers and the products they buy. Where equity is strong, we are leveraging it – creating efficiencies by focusing on fewer, bigger projects that enhance margins. And we are seeking superior products which consumers will prefer, driving profitable growth.

Our operations

On any given day 2 billion consumers use our products and we want to reach many more, by developing innovative products that address different consumer needs at different price points. To do this we use our global scale to help deliver sustainable, profitable growth by seeking to add value at every step in the value chain by enhancing product quality and customer service, and rolling out innovations faster across all markets.

Our people

Sustainable, profitable growth can only be achieved with the right people working in an organisation that is fit to win, with a culture in which performance is aligned with values. We are increasingly an agile and diverse business with people motivated by doing good while doing well. We are building capability and leadership among our people and attracting some of the best talent in the market place.

Sustainable living

For us, sustainable, equitable growth is the only acceptable business model. Business needs to be a regenerative force in the system that gives it life. For example, by reducing waste, we create efficiencies and reduce costs, helping to improve margins while reducing risk. Meanwhile, looking at more sustainable ways of developing products, sourcing and manufacturing opens up opportunities for innovation while improving the livelihoods of our suppliers.

Profitable volume growth

Profitable volume growth is the basis of the virtuous circle of growth. Stronger brands and innovation are the key drivers behind it. Consistently strong volume growth builds brand equity as we reach more consumers, more often.

Cost leverage + efficiency

Profitable volume growth allows us to optimise the utilisation of our infrastructure and spread fixed costs over a larger number of units produced, reducing the average cost per unit. It improves our profitability and allows us to invest in the business.

Innovation + marketing investment

Lower costs and improved efficiency enable us to strengthen our business further. New and improved products are the result of investment in R&D and, together with effective marketing, strengthen our brand equity. This results in profitable volume growth, self-perpetuating the virtuous circle of growth.

With 7 billion people on our planet, the earth’s resources can be strained. This means sustainable, equitable growth is the only acceptable model of growth for our business. We believe growth and sustainability are not in conflict. In fact, in our experience, sustainability drives growth. By focusing on sustainable living needs, we can build brands with a significant purpose. By reducing waste, we create efficiencies and reduce costs, which helps to improve our margins. And we have found that once we start looking at product development, sourcing and manufacturing through a sustainability lens, it opens up great opportunities for innovation.

Our Unilever Sustainable Living Plan (USLP) sets out to decouple our growth from our environmental impact, while at the same time increasing our positive social impact. Our USLP has three big goals that by 2020 will enable us to:

Underpinning these goals are seven commitments supported by around 50 targets spanning our social, environmental and economic performance across the value chain – from the sourcing of raw materials all the way through to the use of our products in the home.

In the second year of our USLP, we made steady progress across our commitments. Our USLP is ambitious and we have much more to do. We continue to strive to deliver our stretching goals.

Focusing innovation on fewer, bigger projects in the future will allow R&D breakthroughs to be translated into many markets in a short timeframe. For example, an innovative method of ‘cool blending’ spreads is set to transform our spreads brands (such as Becel) by reducing total fat and saturated fats by around 25%, which differentiates their nutritional profile even more from butter while still delivering great taste.

And this year we made great advances among consumers in the perceived quality of Lipton Yellow Label tea, by introducing a new process of cold-pressing some of the freshest tea leaves and adding the essence back into conventional dried leaves. Already launched through a celebrity-backed campaign in Russia, which saw retail sales grow by 26% in 12 months, this new technology will be rolled out in another 18 countries in 2013.

Winning market share

Big, fast, ambitious projects can have significant results, provided they are attuned to consumer needs. When we launched the TRESemmé brand into one of the world’s largest hair markets, Brazil, it became one of the leading hair brands in both hypermarkets and drugstore chains within five months. TRESemmé is available in a number of other countries and also includes a range of salon-

quality dry shampoos designed to rejuvenate hair without a single drop of water – good for the environment as well as helping grow our business. Alongside TRESemmé’s rapid launch, we introduced more than 80 new or renewed products in Brazil, including two new Dove variants and re-launches of the Seda and Clear ranges, resulting in substantial gains in a vital market.

By making superior products with benefits people appreciate, we increasingly win consumer preference for premium brands where added value is greatest. Premiumisation, innovation and differentiation will be essential if we are to grow faster than our markets.

Superiority you can feel

The team behind every product in every category of our business is set a clear target for improvement: we want all our brands to be superior to the competition. At present, our global ‘Product Benchmarking Programme’ shows that 96% of our products in scope are considered equal to, or better than, our key competitors’. And where we have made

advances in product performance, we are increasingly able to tell consumers how they will benefit.

When we improved the Sunlight hand dishwash brand, for instance, we had thought carefully about the billions of hours spent every day across the world washing dishes, and the benefits that could come from a dishwash that degreases dishes faster and more easily. We made sure our marketing communicated these improvements, with the result that we converted millions of households to Sunlight, doubling turnover for the dishwash brand in six years.

Quality worth paying for

As well as driving volume growth, superior products can command premium prices, ensuring that growth is profitable. All around the world, we are offering products for which consumers are willing to trade up, with a corresponding rise in added value. In Russia, for example, we launched the Carte d’Or ice cream range in December 2011. The Carte d’Or products were made to premium recipes and marketed accordingly – creating additional value per serving. In just over six months, Carte d’Or sales grew profitably to represent some 25% of the premium segment.

Operational excellence

Enterprise Support, Unilever’s global shared services, is transforming our internal operations. By simplifying our internal processes, it is helping us both reduce costs and, by enabling us to act faster and with greater agility, improve our service to customers.

In Finance Services, for example, we have simplified our reporting processes, systems and tools, reducing our reporting time from 25 working days in 2010 to 19 today. We aim to reduce this still further.

In IT we are leveraging technology across Unilever which is helping us manage our growing business more efficiently. We have simplified 200 local IT transaction systems by replacing them with four global systems, managed as one for speed and resilience. This is delivering many benefits, for example helping us integrate acquisitions swiftly – both Alberto Culver and the Sara Lee personal care brands were integrated in just over six months.

We are also using technology to improve our service to customers. More than 50,000 of

our representatives in areas such as sales, merchandising and store auditing are connected to Unilever’s information systems. They use mobile devices to help them carry out sales transactions and record and upload up-to-date market data. This lets us monitor how our products are being presented to shoppers in over 4 million stores in our ‘Perfect Stores’ programme (see page 17).

It’s not just customers who are benefiting – we are talking directly to consumers too through our digital hub which is connecting them securely with our brands across multiple digital channels. For example, we launched our Dove digital presence in 30 countries in just 30 days – just one of 650 brand activations across 50 countries.

Bringing it all together, in May 2012 we opened a global operations centre in Bangalore, tapping into the talent and mindset of emerging markets. This is the heart of our global shared services operations, and will support our end-to-end IT, Finance and Information Management across the whole of Unilever.

As part of our low-cost business model strategy, we analysed every link in the value chain for Wheel, our value washing powder in India. As a result of technology and productivity improvements in manufacturing as well as distributing the product from our factory direct to the customer, we delivered savings right across the value chain, ensuring our products are affordable to people on low incomes and reducing our carbon footprint.

More at: www.hul.co.in/wheel

In 2011, we began work on the Unilever Four Acres Learning and Leadership Centre in Singapore. The facility is on course to open in mid-2013, and will provide learning and capability development from our new global curriculum, designed to ensure that our people have the skills to meet our growth ambitions.

Four Acres Singapore has accommodation for 55 students and includes two flexible training rooms, a teaching amphitheatre and a multi-purpose hall for up to 200 people.

More at: www.unilever.com/

developing-and-engaging-our-people

Our 2012 heroes include people such as Samwel Nyagucha (pictured on page 24), a tea picker on the Kaptien estate in Kenya, whose initiative has transformed the working life of colleagues on his plantation; Koray Kezer, a customer development manager in Turkey, who spent nights sleeping in his car while he helped customers and colleagues affected by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in the Van region last year; and Abdullah Toseef, who used scrap materials to implement a water conservation project which is saving 28 million litres of fresh water each year at the Rahim Yar Khan factory in Pakistan, where Abdullah is assistant manager.

We have substantially improved the structure of our business over several years, aiming to create an agile, flexible and diverse organisation that can meet the needs of consumers all over the world.

Dynamic structure for dynamic markets

We are already seeing results from changing our approach to the global market place. Where we formerly dealt with 22 geographical sub-entities, we now divide our business between eight markets, six of which are primarily made up of developing economies. This streamlined structure has allowed us to focus sharply on growth, particularly in emerging markets. We can now re-allocate resources quickly between markets, share best practice more easily and concentrate our efforts on a larger number of bigger projects.

We enhanced our standing as an employer by developing the Employer Brand Development Wheel, putting potential employees at the heart of our thinking. This repeatable model, used in every market, is designed to exceed expectations – and beat the competition. For example, our Future Leaders Programme allows young graduates to take on real challenges like shaping the messaging behind Lifebuoy’s handwashing campaign, bringing hygiene benefits to millions of people and contributing to the brand’s consistent sales growth over the past five years.

More at: www.unilever.com/careers

75%

Our employee engagement score, now in line with high-performing employers in our class

110,000

‘likes’ of our Facebook global careers page within six months of launch

Consolidated income statement

(highlights) for the year ended 31 December

Turnover at €51.3 billion increased 10.5%, including a positive impact from foreign exchange of 2.2% and acquisitions net of disposals of 1.1%. Underlying sales growth increased to 6.9%, well balanced between volume growth of 3.4% and price contributions of 3.3%. As in the prior year, emerging markets grew strongly, with underlying sales up 11.4% and now representing 55% of total turnover.

Operating profit was €7.0 billion, compared with €6.4 billion in 2011, up 9%. The increase was driven by higher gross profit and improved cost discipline. Core operating profit was €7.1 billion, up 12% from €6.3 billion in 2011, reflecting the additional impact of lower one-off credits within non-core items.

The cost of financing net borrowings was €390 million, €58 million less than in 2011. The average level of net debt increased by €0.7 billion to €8.9 billion, reflecting the full-year impact of financing prior year acquisitions such as Alberto Culver. The average interest rate was 3.5% on debt and 2.9% on cash deposits. The pensions financing cost was a charge of €7 million, compared to a €71 million credit in 2011.

The effective tax rate was 26.4% compared with 26.5% in 2011.

Net profit from joint ventures and associates, together with other income from non-current investments, contributed €91 million in 2012, compared to €189 million in the prior year. Assets related to businesses sold in previous years recorded positive adjustments to fair value in 2011, whilst similar but unrelated assets were impaired in 2012.

Fully diluted earnings per share were €1.54, up 5% from €1.46 in the prior year. Higher operating profit was the key driver with lower profits from business disposals and one-off items, partially offset by higher minority interests and pension costs and a lower contribution from non-current investments. Core earnings per share were €1.57, up 11% from €1.41 in 2011, reflecting the additional impact of lower one-off credits within non-core items.

Key performance indicators*

We report our performance against four key financial indicators:

The performance of the KPIs is described on page 28, on this page and within the segmental commentaries on pages 30 to 31. The KPIs are described on pages 34 to 35. The non-financial KPIs are described on pages 6 and 27.

Acquisitions and disposals

On 30 July 2012 the Group announced a definitive agreement to sell its North America frozen meals business to ConAgra Foods, Inc. for a total cash consideration of US$265 million. The deal was completed on 19 August 2012. All other acquisitions or disposals during the year were not material.

Further details of acquisitions and disposals during 2011 and 2012 can be found in note 21 on pages 126 and 127.

We have presented some parts of the financial review within other sections of this Annual Report and Accounts, including the financial statements section. We believe this integrated approach provides a better flow of information and avoids duplication.

Personal Care

Key developments

Refreshment

Key developments

Foods

Key developments

Home Care

Key developments

Asia/AMET/RUB

Key developments

The Americas

Key developments

Double-digit growth in markets such as Brazil and Argentina was driven by continued excellent performance in Personal Care and Home Care. Value market shares in these categories are up, as are shares in parts of Foods.

Europe

Key developments

  Unilever Group

Balance sheet

Non-current assets increased by €0.8 billion, mainly due to an increase in property, plant and equipment and deferred tax assets offset by lower pension assets for funded schemes in surplus.

Cash and cash equivalents were lower by €1.0 billion and other financial assets decreased by €1.1 billion as short-term deposits were withdrawn.

Current liabilities were €2.1 billion lower due to a €3.2 billion reduction in other financial liabilities, partially offset by a €0.7 billion increase in trade payables and other current liabilities and a €0.4 billion increase in current tax liabilities.

Non-current liabilities were broadly in line with the previous year. The overall net liability for all pension arrangements was €3.7 billion at the end of 2012, up from €3.2 billion at the end of 2011. The increase was mainly due to a decrease in the discount rate, offset to some extent by good investment performance increasing pension assets. Cash expenditure on pensions was €0.7 billion, compared to €0.6 billion in the prior year.

Contractual obligations at 31 December 2012

^(a) For raw and packaging material and finished goods.

Contractual obligations

Unilever’s contractual obligations at the end of 2012 included capital expenditure commitments, borrowings, lease commitments and other commitments. A summary of certain contractual obligations at 31 December 2012 is provided in the preceding table. Further details are set out in the following notes to the consolidated financial statements: note 10 on pages 107 to 108, note 15C on page 115, and note 20 on pages 125 to 126.

Off-balance sheet arrangements

SIC interpretation 12 ‘Consolidation – Special Purpose Entities’ (SIC 12) requires that entities are considered for consolidation in the financial statements based on risks and rewards. In line with this, all appropriate entities are included in Unilever’s consolidated financial statements. Information concerning guarantees given by the Group is stated in note 16A on page 117.

Finance and liquidity

The Group’s financial strategy provides the financial flexibility to meet strategic and day-to-day needs. Our current long-term credit rating is A+/A1 and our current short-term credit rating is A1/P1. We aim to maintain a competitive balance sheet which we consider to be the equivalent of a credit rating of A+/A1 in the long term. This provides us with:

Unilever aims to concentrate cash in the parent and central finance companies in order to ensure maximum flexibility in meeting changing business needs. Operating subsidiaries are financed through the mixture of retained earnings, third-party borrowings and loans from parent and central finance companies. Unilever maintains access to global debt markets through an infrastructure of short-term debt programmes (principally US domestic and euro commercial paper programmes) and long-term debt programmes (principally a US Shelf Registration programme and a European markets Debt Issuance Programme). Debt in the international markets is, in general, issued in the name of NV, PLC, Unilever Finance International BV or Unilever Capital Corporation. NV, PLC and Unilever United States Inc. will normally guarantee such debt where they are not the issuer.

In this uncertain environment, we have continued to closely monitor all our exposures and counterparty limits. We were comfortable with a high cash balance in 2012.

Unilever has committed credit facilities in place for general corporate purposes. The undrawn committed credit facilities in place on 31 December 2012 were US $6,250 million. Bilateral committed credit facilities totalled US $6,140 million. Bilateral money market commitments totalled US $110 million. Further details are given in note 16A on page 116.

On 17 January 2012 we redeemed our Swiss francs 350 million notes. On 2 August 2012 we issued two series of senior notes:

(a) US $450 million at 0.45% maturing in 2015; and

(b) US $550 million at 0.85% maturing in 2017.

On 14 November 2012 we redeemed our €750 million five-year bond which was issued in 2007 at 4.625%.

The main source of liquidity continues to be cash generated from operations. Unilever is satisfied that its financing arrangements are adequate to meet its working capital needs for the foreseeable future.

Treasury

Unilever Treasury’s role is to ensure that appropriate financing is available for all value-creating investments. Additionally, Treasury delivers financial services to allow operating companies to manage their financial transactions and exposures in an efficient, timely and low-cost manner.

Unilever Treasury is governed by standards approved by the Unilever Leadership Executive. In addition to guidelines and exposure limits, a system of authorities and extensive independent reporting covers all major areas of activity. Performance is monitored closely. Reviews are undertaken periodically by the corporate internal audit function.

The key financial instruments used by Unilever are short-term and long-term borrowings, cash and cash equivalents, and certain plain vanilla derivative instruments, principally comprising interest rate swaps and foreign exchange contracts. The accounting for derivative instruments is discussed in note 16 on page 116 and on page 120. The use of leveraged instruments is not permitted.

Unilever Treasury manages a variety of market risks, including the effects of changes in foreign exchange rates, interest rates and liquidity. Further details of the management of these risks are given in note 16 on pages 116 to 120.

Cash flow

Cash and cash equivalents decreased by €0.5 billion before the impact of exchange rates on year end balances. After recognising changes in exchange rates, cash and cash equivalents in the balance sheet at 31 December 2012 were €0.8 billion lower at €2.2 billion.

Net cash flow from operating activities of €6.8 billion was €1.4 billion higher than 2011. Whilst net capital expenditure and interest were broadly in line with the prior year, the net inflow of acquisitions, disposals and other investing activities was €1.2 billion compared to an outflow of €2.6 billion in 2011. The movement in financing activities is due to a repayment of borrowings and lower new debt being issued as compared to the prior year.

At 31 December 2012, the net debt position was €7.4 billion, a decrease of €1.4 billion compared to 2011. The cash inflow from operating activities and disposals exceeded the outflow from dividends, net capital expenditure, tax, acquisitions and interest.

Market capitalisation and dividends

Unilever N.V.’s and Unilever PLC’s combined market capitalisation rose from €73.9 billion at the end of 2011 to €81.9 billion at 31 December 2012.

Information on dividends is set out in note 8 on page 105.

Basis of reporting and critical accounting policies

The accounting policies that are most significant in connection with our financial reporting are set out in note 1 on pages 90 to 91.

Certain discussions and analyses set out in this Annual Report and Accounts include measures which are not defined by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) such as IFRS. We believe this information, along with comparable GAAP measurements, is useful to investors because it provides a basis for measuring our operating performance, ability to retire debt and invest in new business opportunities. Our management uses these financial measures, along with the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures, in evaluating our operating performance and value creation. Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information presented in compliance with GAAP. Non-GAAP financial measures as reported by us may not be comparable with similarly titled amounts reported by other companies.

In the following sections we set out our definitions of the following non-GAAP measures and provide reconciliations to relevant GAAP measures:

Underlying sales growth (USG)

USG reflects the change in revenue from continuing operations at constant rates of exchange, excluding the effects of acquisitions and disposals. It is a measure that provides valuable additional information on the underlying performance of the business. In particular, it presents the organic growth of our business year on year and is used internally as a core measure of sales performance.

The reconciliation of USG to changes in the GAAP measure turnover is as follows:

Total Group

Personal Care

Foods

Refreshment

Home Care

Underlying volume growth (UVG)

Underlying volume growth is underlying sales growth after eliminating the impact of price changes. The relationship between the two measures is set out below:

The UVG and price effect for category and geographical area are shown in the tables on pages 30 to 31.

Free cash flow (FCF)

Free cash flow represents the cash generated from the operation and financing of the business. The movement in FCF measures our progress against the commitment to deliver strong cash flows. FCF is not used as a liquidity measure within Unilever. FCF includes the cash flow from group operating activities, less income tax paid, net capital expenditure, net interest and preference dividends paid.

The reconciliation of FCF to net profit is as follows:

Core operating profit and core operating margin

Core operating profit and core operating margin means operating profit and operating margin, respectively, before the impact of business disposals, acquisition and disposal related costs, impairments and other one-off items, which we collectively term non-core items, on the grounds that the incidence of these items is uneven between reporting periods.

The reconciliation of core operating profit to operating profit is as follows:

Further details of non-core items can be found in note 3 on page 94.

Core earnings per share

The Group also refers to core earnings per share (core EPS). In calculating core earnings, net profit attributable to shareholders’ equity is adjusted to eliminate the post tax impact of non-core items. Refer to note 7 on page 105 for reconciliation of core earnings to net profit attributable to shareholders’ equity.

Net debt

Net debt is defined as the excess of total financial liabilities, excluding trade and other payables, over cash, cash equivalents and current financial assets, excluding trade and other receivables. It is a measure that provides valuable additional information on the summary presentation of the Group’s net financial liabilities and is a measure in common use elsewhere.

The reconciliation of net debt to the GAAP measure total financial liabilities is as follows: