The healthy growth of the world economy continued during 2006, and we have seen continuing growth in Swedish exports. At the same time, liquidity – and the willingness to take risks – has increased in the private risk capital market. Despite this increase, the demand for our guarantees continued to increase, and we issued more than 2,100 guarantees for Swedish exports to nearly 100 countries. Our total exposure, in the form of commitments and offers, amounts to over SEK 150 billion, spread among nearly 130 countries.

We have also significantly increased the number of our customers – mostly among small and medium sized enterprises. This gives us reason to believe that the extensive marketing campaign that we launched during 2006 and intensified in the spring of 2007 will yield some excellent results. This campaign is being run in close cooperation with the Almi Group. During the current year, all Almi’s 21 regional subsidiaries will be working in partnership with us both in marketing and in issuing guarantees. This gives us another very important channel direct to exporters.

During the year, we also intensified our collaborative efforts with several other players. In this connection, I want to draw attention to the Swedish Trade Council, SEK AB and Swedfund International AB. We have good reason to expect a great deal from this collaboration in the future.

Starting in the spring of the current year, we will be able to further increase our level of service by making it possible to apply for certain guarantees online.

In the year just passed, we also launched several new or modified types of guarantees. We particularly want to draw attention to the new working capital guarantee, which makes it easier to provide capital for exporters for small and medium sized companies.

This initiative in the SME sector does not of course mean that our services to our larger and well-established customers is in any way reduced. On the contrary. Thanks to ongoing reorganisation and rationalisation measures, we have been well able to meet the demands from this customer base. Here too we have an expanded product range, lower premiums and shorter administrative processing times. We have been able to collaborate in many large export transactions, on more and more high risk markets. All this has been received very positively by exporters and banks.

Healthy economic trends worldwide have also yielded great results, both in terms of indemnifications and in recovering claims. The level of indemnifications was the lowest in modern times, while recoveries were the second highest ever – only in 2005 were they higher.

EKN is in a strong position facing the future – financially, and in terms of the product range, the organisation and the skills. This provides a firm foundation for even higher levels of service to Swedish exporters.

It is therefore with a feeling of optimism that I am leaving my job at EKN, after seven years as Director General. It has been an interesting and enjoyable journey. I want to take this opportunity to thank all my colleagues, EKN’s board, customers and partners for all we have done together, and for the great commitment from your side.

I will now hand over the baton to my successor, Karin Apelman.

Olof Rydh

Over the last five years, I have been involved in EKN’s vital activities through my work on the board. These are good times, with many export opportunities for Swedish companies. For both large and small companies, EKN is often a precondition for doing more business, and for daring to take a step into new markets. It is therefore important that our guarantees continue to provide this. So it is with high hopes and expectations that I take over from Olof Rydh.

Karin Apelman
Director General

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