Net profit attributable to shareholders came in at EUR 3,994 million, 8% lower than in 2006 and including a realised capital gain of EUR 947 million on the sale of CaiFor. We pursued a prudent approach and took total subprime-related impairments of EUR 2.7 billion at Banking.

At Banking, full-year net profit clocked in at EUR 1,768 million, down 44% from the previous year. Fortis applied a prudent approach to impairments, using strict assumptions on the super senior CDO portfolio with subprime exposure. Excluding subprime-related impairments, net profit would have increased 10% to EUR 3.5 billion in 2007, reflecting a strong underlying performance on vigorous commercial activity throughout the year.

The net contribution of the acquired activities of ABN AMRO after purchase accounting and the impact of the broken quarter amounted to EUR 179 million. Taking into account the EUR 100 million financing costs and integration costs of EUR 35 million, the net impact of the consolidation of acquired activities on the net profit of Fortis Bank was EUR 86 million.

At Insurance, net profit before divestments came to EUR 1,587 million, up 12% in a challenging market environment. Net profit was affected by natural disasters, turmoil in the global capital markets and additional liabilities related to unit-linked life policies in the Netherlands. These events were more than offset by a solid business performance thanks to a continued focus on profitability and by higher capital gains triggered by portfolio protection techniques (CPPI) and event-driven capital gains (e.g. on the ABN AMRO transaction). Net profit at Life soared 35% to EUR 1,222 million, fuelled by higher volumes and capital gains, but offset by the impact of the credit crunch and additional liabilities in the Dutch life business. The Non-Life result more than doubled in the fourth quarter (up 124%), but the combined impact of Windstorm Kyrill and floods in the UK in previous quarters (EUR 213 million before taxes) brought down full-year Non-Life profit by EUR 126 million to EUR 371 million. Excluding these exceptional natural disasters, the Non-Life combined ratio stood at a healthy 95.7%.