Xylem Inc
For the period ended Dec 31, 2024. Filed Mar 3, 2025.
View on SEC.govAbout this filing
A company's yearly report to the SEC, with audited financial statements. It is the fullest account a company gives of its business, its finances and the risks it sees.
FY2024 · Filed Mar 3, 2025
Extracted filing text, with the paragraph anchors used by the comparison.
See the whole filing, with its images and exhibitsContents
Item 8. Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
To the Stockholders and the Board of Directors of Xylem Inc.
Opinion on the Financial Statements
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Xylem Inc. and subsidiaries (the "Company") as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, changes in stockholders' equity, and cash flows, for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the "financial statements"). In our opinion, the financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of December 31, 2024 and 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2024, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
We have also audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB), the Company's internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission and our report dated March 3, 2025 expressed an unqualified opinion on the Company's internal control over financial reporting.
Basis for Opinion
These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's financial statements based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the PCAOB and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud. Our audits included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the financial statements. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
Critical Audit Matters
The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current-period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing a separate opinion on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which they relate.
Goodwill — Annual impairment test for one Reporting Unit within Water Solutions and Services Segment — Refer to Note 12 to the financial statements
Critical Audit Matter Description
The Company’s evaluation of goodwill for impairment involves the comparison of the fair value of each reporting unit to its carrying value. The goodwill balance was $7.9 billion as of December 31, 2024, of which $2.5 billion related to one reporting unit within the Water Solutions and Services segment. The fair value of the Company’s reporting units exceeded their carrying value as of the 2024 measurement date and, therefore, no impairment was recognized.
To determine the fair value of the Company’s reporting units, the Company used an average of fair values derived from the income and market approaches. Under the income approach, the fair value of the reporting units was based on the discounted value of the estimated cash flows that the reporting unit is expected to generate. Projections were based on management’s estimates of revenue growth rates and the selection of the discount rate, taking into consideration industry and market conditions. The discount rate was based on the weighted average cost of capital appropriate for the reporting units. The determination of the fair value using the market approach requires management to make significant assumptions related to market multiples of earnings derived from comparable publicly traded companies with similar operating and investment characteristics as the reporting units.
We identified the Company’s goodwill impairment assessment for $2.5 billion of goodwill related to the one reporting unit within the Water Solutions and Services segment as a critical audit matter because of the significant judgments made by management to estimate the fair value of the reporting unit, performing audit procedures to evaluate the reasonableness of management’s estimates and assumptions related to the selection of the discount rate and forecasts of future revenue, as well as multiples of earnings for the market approach required a high degree of auditor judgment and an increased extent of effort, including the need to involve our fair value specialists.
How the Critical Audit Matter Was Addressed in the Audit
Our audit procedures related to forecasts of future revenue, selection of the discount rate, and selection of the multiples in the market approach for the one reporting unit within the Water Solutions and Services segment included the following, among others:
We tested the effectiveness of controls over management’s goodwill impairment evaluation, including those over the determination of the fair value of the reporting unit, such as controls related to management’s forecasts of future revenue and the selection of the discount rate for the income approach, and determination of multiples of earnings for the market approach.
We assessed the reasonableness of management’s revenue forecasts by comparing the projections to historical results and certain peer companies and information included in industry reports.
With the assistance of our fair value specialists, we evaluated the reasonableness of the (1) valuation methodology, (2) discount rate,(3) long-term revenue growth rate, including testing the source information underlying the determination of the discount rate and long-term revenue growth rate, testing the mathematical accuracy of the calculation, and developing a range of independent estimates and comparing those to the discount rate selected by management and (4) evaluated the multiples of earnings in the market approach, including testing the underlying source information and mathematical accuracy of the calculations.
/s/Deloitte & Touche LLP
Stamford, Connecticut
We have served as the Company's auditor since 2010.
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.