Four Croatian Banks Receive Support from EIB

Thanks to a new agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB), four Croatian banks are set to receive €220 million in order to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), energy efficient ventures, and mid-caps/municipalities. Below, we’ve listed the four banks and the amount they will receive as part of the project;

•    Hrvatska Banka Za Obnovu I Razvitak (HBOR) - €100 million
•    Privredna Banka Zagreb (PBZ EU) - €60 million
•    Zagrebacka Banka (ZABA) - €40 million
•    Hrvatska Postanska Banka (HPB) - €20 million

While HBOR is the current state-owned national bank, the other three are national commercial banks.

Dario Scannapieco, Vice-President at the EIB, has said “The partnership between the European Investment Bank and HBOR and three prominent Croatian banks will make additional long-term finance available to Croatian companies, unlock further capital for the implementation of their projects and provide significant support for youth employment. In addition, we are using Private Finance for Energy Efficiency – an innovative financial instrument designed to foster priority investments contributing to energy efficiency – for the first time in Croatia.”

In addition to this, Miguel Arias Canete, said “By combining together cash collateral, a technical assistance facility and EIB loans, the "Private Finance for Energy Efficiency " (PF4EE) financial instrument, already deployed under the LIFE programme, has a high potential to unlock financing to energy efficiency investment.”

How will the money be spent? As mentioned previously, HBOR will be supporting mid-caps’ projects across a manner of industries including infrastructure, manufacturing, services, energy, the knowledge economy, and environmental protection. Overall, the aim of this will be to get more people under the age of 30 years in work right across Croatia; currently, this is a huge issue in the country with 30% of the younger workers now unemployed. As long as they demonstrate success and the creation of jobs, investment projects can currently receive backing from the EIB as a result of their Jobs for Youth initiative.

Over the years, the EIB has actually formed a solid partnership with HBOR and this has led to around €2.5 billion being made available through credit lines since the very first project back in 2001.