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tion. The problematic environment meant that something had to be done both in terms of our existing
portfolio and with regard to new business. Many aspects in existing policies had to be adjusted to the
new risk levels. In acquiring new business the issue of pricing, important as it is for our clients, had
to take second place to the far more urgent question of what risks could be assumed in the first place.
Pressure from the market and from competitors has diminished during the course of the year.
Prisma Invest, the insurance for long-term capital goods investments, generated a turnover of 1 million
euros.
The premium income of Prisma Trust, the fidelity insurance, fell to 0.5 million euros. Awareness for
these risks is not very high in Austria, so that the business line will be discontinued as of mid-2010.
Euler Hermes, Hamburg – one of the most successful players in this segment – is interested in taking
over existing and new clients in Austria.
Total turnover from direct and indirect business, at 43 million euros, is 8.4 percent below the previous
year’s figure.
Business for PRISMA Risikoservice GmbH & Co. KG was very encouraging. Other credit rating fees,
charges for the credit assessment of Austrian companies requested by other Euler Hermes-Group companies,
and fees for collection and rating are much higher than the previous year, up by some eight
percent, and stand at just under 10 million euros.
New business
Newly written business including expansion of cover and premium increases in our existing portfolio
exceeded all our expectations. This reflects the great demand for credit insurance in Austria.
Portfolio
As of 31.12.2009 we had 1,895 policies in our portfolio. This number is about seven percent higher than
on 31.12.2008. Cancellations of policies were far lower than a year earlier in terms of premium volume.
The number rose slightly year-on-year.
Credit assessment
The number of new credit limit requests is correlated with our clients’ business and has thus gone
down slightly. In spite of this, 116,200 applications were still processed and decided. Overall exposure
is slightly lower.
Debt collection
Framework contracts for collection services have gone up by 23 percent. The number of individual collection
orders actually carried out has more than doubled, reflecting the high level of payment delays
and insolvencies.
The Euler Hermes-Group set up its own collection company, Euler Hermes Collections GmbH, in Austria
at the end of 2009. PRISMA will cooperate closely with this company and for this reason will
discontinue its own collection activities during 2010.
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