Atradius Survey Finds EU Companies Believe Businesses in Emerging Markets are Willing to Take More Risks Than Their EU Peers

AMSTERDAM, July 12, 2011 -

Businesses based in emerging markets are believed to take more
risks than businesses in mature European markets when entering new
markets and introducing new products by 44% and 35% respectively of
respondents to an Atradius survey of Western European businesses.
Furthermore, a 33% of the survey respondents believe emerging
markets businesses are able to develop more economic production
methods, 31% believe they have fewer layers of management, 29% said
they have more flexibility and ingenuity in their production
methods. Only 12% of survey respondents said that emerging market
businesses employ better-skilled workers.

Respondents from Italy (63%) and Great Britain (56%) showed the
greatest expectation of trading with emerging markets in 2011.
Overall, 42% of the EU companies surveyed anticipated doing
business with 19 emerging markets this year.  Exporting to
emerging markets is the most widely expected action.

China is considered to be the most important emerging market for
survey participants followed by Russia, Poland and the Czech
Republic suggesting that in many cases ease of access to trade
partners can play an important role in trade strategies of Western
European businesses.

From a credit management perspective, the most important actions
taken by survey respondents to reduce payment default risk in
emerging markets include checking buyer’s creditworthiness (64%),
monitoring buyer’s credit risk (45%) and checking buyer’s payment
track record (43%). 35% of the respondents insure their
receivables.

Isidoro Unda, Chairman and CEO of the Atradius N.V. commented,
“International trade is an important aspect of the growth
strategies of many businesses worldwide and emerging markets have
grown to be some of the most important export destinations.
Atradius is helping enable the growth strategies of these
businesses by reducing payment default risk, supplying them with
information about the creditworthiness of their buyers, and helping
them collect overdue invoices and debts.”

The complete report highlighting the findings of the Atradius
survey Doing business with emerging markets in 2011 can be
found in the Publications section of .

About Atradius
The Atradius Group provides trade credit insurance, surety and
collections services worldwide, and has a presence through 160
offices in 42 countries. Atradius has access to credit information
on 60 million companies worldwide and makes more than 20,000 trade
credit limit decisions daily. Its products help to protect
companies throughout the world from payment default risks
associated with selling products and services on credit.

www.atradius.com

For further information: Atradius Corporate Communications, Christine Gerryn, Tel.: +31-20-553-2047, E-mail: christine.gerryn at atradius.com