|
|
          |
|
REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
The Board of Directors and Stockholders We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and subsidiaries as of June 30, 2006 and 2005, and the related consolidated statements of earnings, stockholders' equity and comprehensive income, and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended June 30, 2006. These consolidated financial statements are the responsibility of the Company's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these consolidated financial statements based on our audits. We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion. In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and subsidiaries as of June 30, 2006 and 2005, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended June 30, 2006, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. As discussed in Notes 2 and 13 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company adopted Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 123(R), "Share-Based Payment," effective July 1, 2005. We also have audited, in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), the effectiveness of The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.'s internal control over financial reporting as of June 30, 2006, based on criteria established in Internal Control-Integrated Framework issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO), and our report dated August 25, 2006 expressed an unqualified opinion on management's assessment of, and the effective operation of, internal control over financial reporting.
|
