Note 47 Contingent assets and liabilities

Pursuant to Section 403 Book 2, of the Netherlands Civil Code, Alliander has assumed liability for the obligations arising from the legal acts of several of the subsidiaries listed in the Notes to the company financial statements.

Note 48 Operating income

Revenue mainly comprises charges passed on for CDMA data communication network services. The other operating income chiefly relates to group-wide activities at holding company level.

Note 49 Costs of subcontracted work and other external expense

Note 50 Employee benefit expense

Staff costs mainly concerns the costs of group-wide activities at holding company level. Nearly all the personnel are on the Alliander N.V. payroll. The staff costs are charged to the business units where the employees concerned work.

Note 51 Depreciation and amortisation

The column headed ‘Other’ includes ICT-related depreciation/amortisation and the amortisation of intangible assets.

Note 52 Other operating expenses

Costs passed on by group companies mainly concerns internal development projects at holding company level.

Note 53 Finance income

The finance income on loans to group companies was €19 million lower than in 2015 owing to a reduction in the interest rate charged and a reduction in the amount of current-account receivables from group companies.

Note 54 Finance expense

The finance expense on loans from third parties was €14 million lower owing to a lower net debt in 2016 following repayment of €400 million of borrowing under the EMTN programme and contracting of a loan of €300 million at a lower interest rate.

Note 55 Tax

The effective tax rate was 29.3%.

Note 56 Share in profit/loss of subsidiaries, associates and joint arrangements

The share in results of companies invested in after tax was down by €141 million, mainly owing to lower profits from the network operator and the absence in 2016 of a share in the profit of Endinet Groep B.V. following the sale of that company.