Eksportfinans third quarter 2009 Strong underlying business performance

Eksportfinans had a record high net interest income of NOK 1.1 billion in the
first nine months of 2009. Disbursements of new export credits were NOK 9.4
billion in the third quarter alone. 

Eksportfinans experienced a net profit excluding unrealized gains and losses of
NOK 803 million in the first nine months of 2009, compared to NOK 9.0 million
in the corresponding period in 2008. 

Export Lending
The comparatively strong demand for new export financing continued during the
first nine months of 2009. The volume of outstanding export loans was NOK 78.1
billion at September 30, 2009 compared to NOK 71.0 billion at the end of the
first nine months of 2008. New disbursements of export-related loans were NOK
21.3 billion during the first nine months of 2009, compared to NOK 17.9 billion
during the same period in 2008. 

Funding
Eksportfinans successfully returned to the Swiss Franc market on October 1,
2009 with a CHF 225 million, 9.5 year public benchmark. New funding in the
first nine months of 2009 amounted to NOK 43.4 billion through 888 individual
trades, compared with NOK 69.2 billion and 710 trades for the same period in
2008. 

Local Government Lending
On June 24, 2009, Eksportfinans' subsidiary Kommunekreditt Norge AS (now KLP
Kreditt AS) was sold to Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP). At the same time,
NOK 11 billion of loans from Kommunekreditt to Norwegian municipalities were
transferred to Eksportfinans ASA at market value. Eksportfinans expects to hold
this portfolio of municipal loans to maturity. 

Results
The total comprehensive income was negative NOK 1.0 billion in the first nine
months of 2009 according to the international accounting standard IRFS. This
negative result was due to the reversal of unrealized gains on Eksportfinans'
debt which can be explained as follows: The normalization in the international
financial markets led do a decline in international credit spreads in the third
quarter. This is turn led to a reversal of the net unrealized gains in the fair
value of Eksportfinans' own debt which was booked in 2008 and the beginning of
2009. While Eksportfinans booked unrealized gains of NOK 4.9 billion of the
company's debt net of derivatives for the year 2008, the corresponding figure
for the first nine months of 2009 is an unrealized loss of NOK 2.9 billion. As
of September 30 2009, there are still NOK 2.7 billion of unrealized gains which
will be reversed as unrealized losses in future periods. These unrealized
losses do not in any material way affect the company's core capital. 

The complete 3rd quarter report is available at www.eksportfinans.no

For further information, please contact:

President and CEO Gisele Marchand, tel: +47 41 51 74 89, 
e-mail: gma@eksportfinans.no


EVP Director of Staff/ Head of Communications Elise Lindbæk, 
tel: + 47 22 01 22 64, mobile: +47 90 51 82 50, e-mail: el@eksportfinans.no.

Eksportfinans is the Norwegian institute for export financing owned by banks
and the Norwegian Government. It offers competitive long term financing to the
export industry.