EKSPORTFINANS ENTERS INTO AGREEMENT WITH THE NORWEGIAN GOVERNMENT TO ENSURE LONG TERM FINANCING FOR THE NORWEGIAN EXPORT SECTOR

Last night, Eksportfinans entered into an agreement with the Government whereby
the Government provides funding to Eksportfinans in order to ensure that
Norwegian exporters will be able to obtain long term financing for their
projects. 

The agreement establishes that the Government will provide funding to
Eksportfinans in the coming two years for financing of new export projects that
qualify under the OECD Consensus Agreement for export financing (the CIRR
scheme). The funding from the Government will have a maturity of up to 5 years.
The Government expresses that given reasonable preconditions, the need for
financing under the agreement may be around NOK 50 billion over the next two
years. 

President and CEO of Eksportfinans, Gisele Marchand, gives the following
statement: “We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the Government in
order to ensure that Norwegian exporters receive necessary financing of their
projects. As a consequence of the demanding situation in the international
capital markets, the availability of long term funding for Eksportfinans this
autumn has not been sufficient to cover the substantial demand for export
financing. With this agreement we will be able to meet the demand from the
exporters.” 

The agreement with the Government is aimed particularly at export credits, and
does not include a specific solution for Eksportfinans' subsidiary
Kommunekreditt Norge AS. Eksportfinans wishes to focus on export financing to a
larger extent going forward, and will therefore consider selling the subsidiary
given an acceptable price. “We are concerned with finding satisfactory
solutions for the employees of Kommunekreditt and the municipal sector”, says
Gisele Marchand. 

The agreement with the Government is subject to approval by shareholders
representing at least 2/3 of Eksportfinans' shareholding, and by the Norwegian
Parliament (the Storting). 


Contact information:
President and CEO Gisele Marchand, ph +47 41 51 74 89, gma@eksportfinans.no
Director of Communications Elise Lindbæk, ph +47 90 51 82 50,
el@eksportfinans.no 



Eksportfinans is the Norwegian institution for export financing - owned by
banks and the Norwegian Government. Its mission is to offer long term financial
services to the export industry and the municipal sector. See
www.eksportfinans.no for more information.