Note 20 Contingent assets and liabilities

Rights and obligations arising from leases

Please refer to note 19 for details of rights and obligations arising from leases.

Investments and other purchasing commitments

The outstanding investment commitments and other purchasing commitments at the end of the year were as follows:

Contracts with purchase or revenue guarantees have also been recognised in both 2023 and 2022. The other purchasing commitments include hiring obligations for personnel, procurement for grid losses and IT facilities including SAP contracts. 

Contingent liabilities

On and immediately after the balance sheet date, a number of claims were made against Alliander. Alliander was also involved in a number of lawsuits at the balance sheet date, connected with normal business operations. These claims/lawsuits could have a material impact on Alliander’s results, should the outcome not go in Alliander’s favour. Provisions have been recognised where necessary.

As at year-end 2023, Alliander had issued parent company guarantees amounting to €18 million (2022: €18 million), including parent company guarantees of €8 million (2022: €5 million) due from non-controlling interests. Bank guarantees amounting to €54.6 million had been issued on Alliander’s behalf at the end of the year (2022: €0.3 million). The increase relative to 2022 is explained by the partial use of bank guarantees to cover procurement obligations for network losses instead of paying security deposits.

Alliander has taken out liability insurance in the form of a Directors and Officers policy covering the members of the Supervisory Board, the members of the Management Board, the operating company managers and other directors within the Alliander group. In addition to the cover provided by this liability insurance, the members of the Supervisory Board are also legally indemnified. As far as possible, the members of the Supervisory Board are also indemnified by Alliander subject to specific conditions and with strict limitations in respect of costs connected with legal proceedings brought under civil, penal or administrative law in which they may become involved by virtue of their membership of the Supervisory Board.

Alliander, together with its Dutch subsidiaries, forms a tax group for both corporate income tax and value added tax (VAT). Consequently, every legal entity forming part of the tax group bears joint and several liability for the tax liabilities of the legal entities included in the tax group. Alliander has also given a declaration of indemnity to network operator Liander under which its liability in this respect is restricted to the amount for which it itself would be liable if a tax group did not exist.

Convertible subordinated loans were contracted with the shareholders of Alliander in the past and relate to guarantees given on the sale of non-strategic interests. On expiry of these guarantees, the loans were released to income and shares in Alliander were issued in 2006. A number of guarantees are, however, for an indefinite period; in the event that there are any subsequent claims on guarantees in the future, the shareholders concerned have a duty to surrender all or part of their shares.

In 2006, following the declaration of the nullity of a claim, a guarantee provision for the sale of associates was released to income and additional shares in Alliander were issued in 2007. The guarantees which have been given are for an indefinite period. It is therefore still possible for claims to be made on these guarantees in the future. Alliander can again also require the shareholders to surrender some or all of their shares.