Press Release

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For further information contact:

Timothy Harwood

(202) 336-8744

Friday, November 20, 2009

OPIC Selects Alliant Emerging Markets as Originator in Enterprise Development Network

Alliant Emerging Markets: Conal Duffy, Tel: (312) 546 5604; cduffy@alliantinsurance.com

WASHINGTON, D.C. –The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has selected Alliant Emerging Markets, a unit of Alliant Insurance Services Houston LLC, to serve as an originator for a growing alliance with the private sector designed to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) expanding into emerging markets overseas.

The alliance, the Enterprise Development Network (EDN), is expanding the ability of OPIC – the U.S. government agency charged with facilitating U.S. private sector investment in emerging markets – to provide financing to SMEs doing business in developing countries.

Through the support of financial institutions, business consultants, associations, law firms and regional investment promotion agencies, EDN is designed to enhance SME access to OPIC products and services. By empowering such service providers, the network will result in more efficient, cost-effective delivery of services to American businesses.

Alliant Emerging Markets is a unit of Alliant Insurance Services Houston LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Alliant Insurance Services, Inc, which is one of the 15 largest insurance brokerage firms in the United States and is the nation’s second largest privately held insurance brokerage firm. Alliant Emerging Markets specializes in helping clients pursue opportunities to capture greater rates of return and improved operating margins while protecting the downside of increased vulnerability to global threats.

Conal Duffy, with more than 20 years of experience in international projects, leads Alliant Emerging Markets’ efforts to obtain financing and investment for small and medium-sized businesses. His team, with offices in Chicago and New York, has assisted project sponsors, financial institutions, and investors throughout Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East on a wide range of projects and financings. For more information, please visit Alliant Emerging Markets on the web at http://www.alliantinsurance.com/Services/Risk/CorporateRisk/EmergingMarkets

OPIC was established as an agency of the U.S. government in 1971. It helps U.S. businesses invest overseas, fosters economic development in new and emerging markets, complements the private sector in managing risks associated with foreign direct investment, and supports U.S. foreign policy. Because OPIC charges market-based fees for its products, it operates on a self-sustaining basis at no net cost to taxpayers.

OPIC’s political risk insurance and financing help U.S. businesses of all sizes invest in more than 150 emerging markets and developing nations worldwide. Over the agency's 39-year history, OPIC has supported $194 billion worth of investments that have helped developing countries to generate over 842,000 host-country jobs. OPIC projects have also generated $73 billion in U.S. exports and supported more than 274,000 American jobs.