Auditor’s Combined Assurance Report on the Sustainability Report of Essity Aktiebolag (publ)

This is the translation of the auditor’s report in Swedish.

To Essity Aktiebolag (publ)

Introduction

We have been engaged by the Board of Essity Aktiebolag (publ) to undertake a combined assurance engagement of the Sustainability Report for Essity Aktiebolag (publ) for the year 2017. The Company has defined the scope of the Sustainability Report to the areas referred to in the GRI index.

Responsibilities of the Board and Executive Management for the Sustainability Report

The Board of Directors and Executive Management are responsible for the preparation of the Sustainability Report in accordance with the applicable criteria, as explained in the chapter H1. General accounting principles, and are the parts of the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines published by GRI (The Global Reporting Initiative) that are applicable to the Sustainability Report, as well as the accounting and calculation principles that the Company has developed. This responsibility includes the internal control relevant to the preparation of a Sustainability Report that is free from material misstatements, whether due to fraud or error.

Responsibilities of the auditor

Our responsibility is to express a conclusion on the Sustainability Report based on the assurance procedures we have performed.

We conducted our engagement in accordance with ISAE 3000 Assurance engagements other than audits or reviews of historical financial information, with the application of RevR 6 Assurance of Sustainability Reports issued by FAR.

The engagement includes a limited assurance engagement on the complete Sustainability Report and audit of environmental data – fossil fuels and grid supply – in the chapter Environmental data. The objective of an audit is to obtain reasonable assurance that the information is free of material misstatements. A reasonable assurance engagement includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the quantitative and qualitative information in the Sustainability Report. A limited assurance engagement consists of making inquiries, primarily of persons responsible for the preparation of the Sustainability Report, and applying analytical and other limited assurance procedures. The procedures performed in a limited assurance engagement vary in nature from, and are less in extent than for, a reasonable assurance engagement conducted in accordance with IAASB’s Standards on Auditing and other generally accepted auditing standards in Sweden.

The firm applies ISQC 1 (International Standard on Quality Control) and accordingly maintains a comprehensive system of quality control including documented policies and procedures regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements. We are independent of Essity Aktiebolag (publ) in accordance with professional ethics for accountants in Sweden and have otherwise fulfilled our ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements.

Hence, the conclusion based on our limited assurance procedures does not comprise the same level of assurance as the conclusion of our reasonable assurance procedures. Since this engagement is combined, our conclusions regarding reasonable assurance and limited assurance are presented separately below.

Our procedures are based on the criteria defined by the Board of Directors and the Executive Management as described above. We consider these criteria suitable for the preparation of the Sustainability Report. We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our conclusion below.

Conclusions

Based on the limited assurance procedures we have performed, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the Sustainability Report is not prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the criteria defined by the Board of Directors and Executive Management.

In our opinion the information in the Sustainability Report which has been subject to our reasonable assurance procedures have, in all material respects, been prepared in accordance with the criteria defined by the Board of Directors and Executive Management.

Stockholm, 21 February 2018
Ernst & Young AB