Most of the increase in rentals and lease rentals is accounted for by a sale and leaseback arrangement at Leighton Holdings and by rents at HOCHTIEF Construction Qatar W.L.L.

The insurance expenses mainly relate to project risk management in the Turner Group. Insurance payments by Turner and other project stakeholders such as suppliers and clients are combined to minimize project execution risks to Turner and its clients. The insurance expenses are counterbalanced by insurance revenue reported in sales.

The high prior-year figure for expenses from derivative financial instruments mostly consisted of changes in the fair value of derivative financial instruments in connection with obligations in the Leighton Group to make payments into the equity of infrastructure project companies, where the changes in fair value were partly recognized in profit or loss.

Sundry other operating expenses mostly comprise order processing, costs of materials for administrative purposes, costs of preparing the annual financial statements, losses incurred on disposal of property, plant and equipment, and other expenses not reported elsewhere. Also included under this heading are sundry taxes amounting to EUR 22,115,000 (2008: EUR 10,020,000).

Including personnel and material expenses, a total of EUR 5,304,000 was spent on Group-wide research and development projects by the central innovation management function in 2009 (2008: EUR 5,212,000).