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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' REPORT
To the Board of Directors and Shareholders of
The Boeing Company
Chicago, Illinois
We have audited the accompanying consolidated statements of financial position of The Boeing Company and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2003 and 2002, and the related consolidated statements of operations, shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2003. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Company’s management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America. 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 (located at pages 25–28 and pages 56–84) referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of The Boeing Company and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2003 and 2002, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2003 in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
As discussed in Note 4 and Note 18 to the consolidated financial statements, the Company changed its method of accounting for goodwill and other intangible assets effective January 1, 2002 to conform to Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 142, Goodwill and Other Intangible Assets, and its method of accounting for derivative financial instruments effective January 1, 2001 to conform to Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 133, Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities, as amended.
Deloitte & Touche LLP
Chicago, Illinois
January 29, 2004 (February 11, 2004 as to the effects
of the tax refunds described in Notes 6 and 25)