Non-financial key figures at a glance

In the following, we have compiled the most important non-financial key figures in tabular form, as well as the content index of the Global Reporting Initiative GRI, which shows where in this report information that meets the requirements of the GRI can be found. In addition, we have included the report of the auditor who performed an independent limited assurance engagement on this report.

GRI Content Index

Template: Proportion of turnover from products or services associated with Taxonomy-aligned economic activities – disclosure covering year 2022

Template: Proportion of CapEx from products or services associated with Taxonomy-aligned economic activities – disclosure covering year 2022

Template: Proportion of OpEx from products or services associated with Taxonomy-aligned economic activities – disclosure covering year 2022

Reporting form 1: Activities in the fields of nuclear energy and fossil gas

Limited Assurance Report of the Independent Auditor Regarding the Separate Consolidated Non-financial Report ¹

To the Executive Board of AIXTRON SE, Herzogenrath

We have performed an independent limited assurance engagement on the separate consolidated non-financial report of AIXTRON SE, Herzogenrath (hereinafter, “AIXTRON”), for the period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 (hereinafter, “NFS”). The separate consolidated non-financial report consists of the reporting sections of the sustainability report marked with an omega sign ("Ω") - with the exception of individual disclosures marked as unaudited.

Management Responsibilities
 

The legal representatives of AIXTRON are responsible for the preparation of the separate consolidated non-financial report for the period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022 in accordance with §§ 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB and Article 8 of REGULATION (EU) 2020/852 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of June 18, 2020 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment, and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 (hereinafter “EU Taxonomy Regulation”) and the supplementing Delegated Acts as well as the interpretation of the wordings and terms contained in the EU Taxonomy Regulation.

This responsibility of the legal representatives includes the selection and application of appropriate methods to prepare the separate consolidated non-financial report 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 separate consolidated non-financial report that is free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud (manipulation of the separate consolidated non-financial report) or error.

The EU Taxonomy Regulation and the supplementing Delegated Acts contain wordings and terms that are still subject to substantial uncertainties regarding their interpretation and for which not all clarifications have been published yet. Therefore, the legal representatives have included a description of their interpretation in Chapter „EU-Taxonomy“ of the separated consolidated non-financial report. They are responsible for the validity of this interpretation. Due to the innate risk of diverging interpretations of vague legal concepts, the legal conformity of these interpretations is subject to uncertainty.

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 quality assurance standard of the German Institute of Public Auditors (Institut der Wirtschaftsprüfer, IDW) regarding quality assurance requirements in audit practice (IDW QS 1).

Practitioner Responsibilities

It is our responsibility to express a conclusion with limited assurance on the separate consolidated non-financial report based on the audit we have performed.

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 in such a way that we obtain limited assurance as to whether any matters have come to our attention that cause us to believe that the company’s Chapters and Sections marked “Ω“ (except for the disclosures marked as non-audited) in the sustainability report of AIXTRON for the reporting period from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022, have not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the §§ 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB and the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the delegated acts issued for this purpose as well as the interpretation presented in the “EU Taxonomy” chapter of the separate consolidated non-financial report by the legal representatives.

As the assurance procedures performed during a limited assurance engagement are less comprehensive than in a reasonable assurance engagement, the level of assurance obtained is substantially lower. The determination of assurance procedures is subject to the auditor’s own judgement.

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

• Creation of an understanding of the interdisciplinary structures for the management of sustainability aspects of the group and the involvement of stakeholders
• Inquiries of the legal representatives and relevant personnel who were involved in the preparation of the separate consolidated non-financial report about the preparation process, the internal control system related to this process and information in the separate consolidated non-financial report
• Identification of likely risks of material misstatement in the separate consolidated nonfinancial report
• Analytical assessment of selected information from the separate consolidated non-financial report
• Comparison of selected information with the corresponding data in the consolidated financial statements and group management report
• 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 AIXTRON
• A risk analysis, including media research, to identify relevant information on AIXTRON’s sustainability performance within the reporting period
• Evaluation of the design and the implementation of systems and processes for the collection, processing and monitoring of disclosures, including data consolidation, on environmental, employee and social matters, respect for human rights, and combating corruption and bribery
• Inquiries of group-level personnel who are responsible for determining disclosures on concepts, due diligence processes, results and risks, performing internal control functions and consolidating disclosures
• Inspection of selected internal and external documents
• Analytical procedures for the evaluation of data and of the trends in quantitative disclosures as reported at group level by all sites
• Evaluation of local data collection, validation and reporting processes as well as the reliability of reported data based on a sample basis
• Group-level interviews with responsible employees to gain an understanding of how to identify relevant economic activities according to the EU taxonomy
• Evaluation of the process for the identification of taxonomy-eligible and taxonomy-aligned economic activities and the corresponding disclosures in the report
• Assessment of the overall presentation of the disclosures

The legal representatives must interpret vague legal concepts in order to be able to compile the relevant disclosures in accordance with Article 8 of the EU Taxonomy Regulation. Due to the innate risk of diverging interpretations of vague legal concepts, the legal conformity of these interpretations and, correspondingly, our assurance thereof are subject to uncertainty.

Conclusion

Based on the procedures performed and the evidence obtained, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the separate consolidated non-financial report of AIXTRON SE, Herzogenrath, for the period January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022, in the form of the sections of the sustainability report marked with an "Ω", with the exception of individual information marked as unaudited, have not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with §§ 315c in conjunction with 289c to 289e HGB and the EU Taxonomy Regulation and the delegated acts issued for this purpose as well as the chapter "EU Taxonomy" of the separate consolidated non-financial report has been prepared by the legal representatives.

Restriction of Use/General Engagement Terms

This assurance report is issued for purposes of the Executive Board of AIXTRON SE, Herzogenrath, only. We assume no responsibility with regard to any third parties.

Our assignment for the Executive Board of AIXTRON SE, Herzogenrath, and professional liability as described above were 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 notice of the provisions contained therein (including the limitation of our liability for negligence to EUR 4 million as stipulated in No. 9 AAB) and accepts the validity of the General Engagement Terms with respect to us.

Düsseldorf, February 27, 2023

KPMG AG

Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft

Brandt                                               Wegmann

Wirtschaftsprüferin                        Wirtschaftsprüferin