According to Metsä Board’s Articles of Association, the Company has one auditor that must be an audit firm authorised by the Central Chamber of Commerce of Finland. The General Meeting appoints the auditor each year at the Annual General Meeting. The Company’s Audit Committee together with the Audit Committee of its parent entity, Metsäliitto Cooperative, organised a competitive bidding for audit services in 2011 and 2021. As a result of the 2011 bidding, the Company’s long-term auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers Oy was changed to KPMG Oy Ab at the 2012 Annual General Meeting. Following the competitive bidding organised in 2021 and pursuant to the decision of the 2022 Annual General Meeting, KPMG Oy Ab now acts as the Company’s auditor with Kirsi Jantunen, APA, as the auditor with main responsibility.
Under the EU Audit Directive, an audit firm may act as a company’s auditor for a maximum of 10 years, after which a competitive bidding must be organised for the audit services. Should the same audit firm be re-elected, it may serve continuously as the Company’s auditor for another 10 years at most, after which the audit firm must be changed. The Audit committee controls the appointment procedure of auditors and provides the Board and the General Meeting with a recommendation for the appointment of the auditor.
In 2023, KPMG Oy Ab received EUR 260,000 (EUR 232,000 in 2022) in auditing compensation, KPMG internationally received altogether EUR 251,000 in 2023 (EUR 223,000 in 2022) and other auditing firms outside Finland were paid EUR 12,000 (EUR 11,000 in 2022). In addition, KPMG has received EUR 32,000 (EUR 0 in 2022) for services not related to the actual auditing of the accounts.