Note 12 Equity
Authorised capital
The company's authorised capital is divided into 350 million shares of €5 nominal value. As at year-end 2016, 136,794,964 shares were in issue (2015: 136,794,964).
Subordinated perpetual bond
On 27 November 2013, Alliander issued a subordinated perpetual bond loan with a nominal amount of €500 million and a coupon of 3.25% at an issue price of 99.434%, raising an amount of €497 million. The directly attributable costs of €1 million were deducted from this amount, so that €496 million was added to equity. This subordinated perpetual bond loan is treated as equity. Alliander does not have any contractual obligation to repay the loan. Any periodical payments on the loan are conditional and depend on payments to shareholders. As and when resolutions are passed making distributions to shareholders, the Management Board will also pay any arrears of the contractual coupon interest to the holders of the subordinated perpetual bond loan out of other reserves. The annual amount of the interest payable is €16 million.
A number of the terms and conditions of the associated loan contract were amended in 2015. This does not affect the classification as equity.
Hedge reserve
Alliander uses cash flow hedging, involving both interest rate swaps and currency hedges. Further information can be found in the notes on risks and financial instruments.
The negative carrying amount of the hedge reserve as at year-end 2016, after deduction of deferred tax, was €0.5 million and relates to an interest rate hedge on the EMTN issue in 2004. This cash flow hedge terminates on maturity of the Euro Medium Term Notes concerned.
Revaluation reserve
The revaluation reserve is connected with the available-for-sale financial assets. The decrease of €7 million in the revaluation reserve in 2016 is accounted for by the decrease in value of the available-for-sale financial assets.
Other
The other reserve includes an amount of €1.4 million after tax (2015: €0.9 million) relating to a defined-benefit pension plan for employees of our activities in Germany.
The hedge reserve, the revaluation reserve and the subordinated perpetual bond loan are not freely distributable.
Non-controlling interest
On 10 July 2012, Alliander acquired a 95% interest in Indigo B.V. This company is a partnership between Alliander and the City of Nijmegen (which has an interest of 5%) established with the object of constructing a heat transmission pipeline from the regional waste-to-energy plant Afvalverwerking Regio Nijmegen (ARN) to supply the district heating network to be built by Nuon Energy. As at the end of the reporting period, the shareholders' equity of Indigo BV amounted to €4.8 million. In accordance with the basis of Alliander's consolidation, Indigo BV has been consolidated in full with separate disclosure of a non-controlling interest in the consolidated equity. In 2016, Alliander acquired a 95% interest in Warmtenet Hengelo B.V., a company which is developing a district heating system. The shareholders’ equity of this company as at year-end 2016 amounted to €0.2 million. However, the amount of these non-controlling interests (together €0.2 million), means that they are not visibly accounted for on the face of the balance sheet as at year-end 2016 .