EXTERNAL AUDITORS

OVERVIEW OF THE EXTERNAL AUDITOR

Ernst & Young was appointed by the shareholders through General Assembly Meeting held on 28th of April 2022, as the external auditor for the Company. And Mr. Ashraf Abu Sharkh, the Ernst & Young partner, was appointed as their representative and responsible for the company’s accounts.

Ernst & Young (EY) is a multinational professional services firm and one of the largest in the world. EY operates as a network of member firms which are separate legal entities in individual countries. It has 250.000 employees in over 700 offices across 150 countries and global revenue of US$34.8 billion. EY provides assurance (including financial audit), tax, consulting, and advisory services to companies. EY has been present in MENA since 1923 and in the UAE since 1966. EY’s Dubai office has over 1.400 staff and serves a wide variety of government, private and multinational clients.

APPOINTMENT, FEES AND SERVICES

The shareholders resolved on 28th of April 2022 to appoint EY as the external auditors for GULFNAV, with a total remuneration amounting to AED 307.000.

On an annual basis, the company requests quotation/proposal from different audit firms and formal evaluation (technical/financial) is conducted before nominating the external auditors for the next year, including review and recommendation from the Audit Committee and Board of Directors. The appointment of the external auditors (firms/fees) are eventually approved by the shareholders through the General Assembly Meeting.

Details about the external audit firms, fees and scope of services are briefly explained in the table below:

Audit Firms/Consultants

Ernst & Young

Al Shabanat

Excellence

MARS

Group companies

GULFNAV PJSC

GULFNAV – KSA Branch

GNPM

GULFNAV – KSA Branch

Gulf Nav Ship Management FZE

Gulf Navigation Group FZCO

GULFNAV PJSC and

Branches in UAE

Associated since (year)

2021

2017

2016

2020

Total audit fees for the financial statement

497.000

N/A

AED 3.200

N/A

Fees and costs of the special services, other than audit of financial statements

N/A

AED 17.568

N/A

AED 10.000

The details/nature of other services

N/A

KSA branch VAT submission

N/A

ESR Notification and Substance Reporting Support

Statement of other services obtained from another external auditors/ consultants

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Qualified opinions were not issued/given by the auditors for the financial period 2022.

One Qualified opinions was issued by the auditors for the financial period 2022, as follows: “the Group’s profit for the year ended 31 December 2022 includes a net income of AED 12,036 thousand from trading of its own equity instruments (‘treasury shares’). As per IAS 32, no gain or loss shall be recognised in profit or loss on the purchase, sale, issue or cancellation of an entity’s own equity instruments. As a result, the Group’s profit for the year ended 31 December 2022 has been overstated by AED 12,036 thousand.