Third year with high guarantee volume

“Despite war in Europe and its negative consequences, Swedish exports have performed well in 2022. Swedish innovations are in demand globally, and EKN’s guarantees are important to enable financing,” says Anna-Karin Jatko, Director General, EKN.

Major transactions include guarantees for financing 5G expansion in the US, offshore wind power in the North Sea, capacity expansion at a pulp mill in Brazil and a new pulp mill in Finland.

“EKN continuously adapts guarantees to the export companies’ demand and last autumn launched an import guarantee to secure Swedish export industry’s access to raw materials,” says Anna-Karin Jatko.

Challenging year for small and medium-sized enterprises

Small and medium-sized enterprises had a difficult year, holding off on new investments. This reduced demand for EKN’s guarantees. The number of new SME transactions guaranteed by EKN during the year was 441, compared to 498 in 2021.

“Last autumn, many small and medium sized companies signaled about increasing difficulties to gain access to financing. EKN launched a working capital guarantee adapted for scale-ups to promote their access to bank financing,” says Anna-Karin Jatko.

Significant claims provisions and low claims payments

Claims payments amounted to SEK 881 million, remaining low at 0.36 percent of outstanding guarantees.

EKN saw increased risk of claims both in export transactions made with Russia before the war and in export transactions with countries with high and growing indebtedness, primarily Ghana. EKN therefore made large provisions for possible future claims, resulting in a loss for the year of SEK 912 million. EKN has a strong financial position, with equity of over SEK 25 billion, after many years of positive results.

“EKN’s strong financial position means substantial capacity for many new export transactions and a deteriorating situation regarding claims.” says Anna-Karin Jatko.

2022 in brief (compared with 2021)

1. Guarantee volume: SEK 64.8 billion, of which SEK 2.6 billion was issued to small and medium sized enterprises (77.1, of which SMEs 2.0)
2. New transactions: 1,505, of which 441 with small and medium sized enterprises (1,781, of which 498 SMEs)
3. Number of customers: 419, of which 275 small and medium sized enterprises (480, of which 326 SMEs)
4. Total amount recovered: SEK 799 million (349)
5. Claims payments: SEK 881 million (779)
6. Loss: SEK 912 million (1,603)