ZAGREB (Croatia), November 21 (SeeNews) – The European Investment Bank (EIB) said on Monday it is supporting Croatia's state-owned development bank, Hrvatska banka za obnovu i razvitak (HBOR) with a 50 million euro guarantee aiming to finance midcap companies and other priority projects in the country.
This is the EIB’s first operation in Croatia guaranteed by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the guarantee set up as part of the Investment Plan for Europe – the so-called “Juncker Plan”, the EIB said in a statement.
“I am very proud to announce the first operation of the EIB in Croatia under the EFSI umbrella: in one year and a half the EIB has reached almost 50 per cent of the final target of the Investment Plan for Europe. Thanks to the excellent collaboration with HBOR, Croatian MidCaps will benefit from the positive domino effect of the financial guarantee,” said Dario Scannapieco, the EIB vice-president responsible for Croatia.
In detail, the operation will be structured as a risk-sharing instrument to cover up to 50% of credit risk associated with a portfolio of existing corporate loans outstanding on HBOR's balance sheet.
As a condition and with the resources made available by the guarantee, HBOR will grant new loans to MidCaps and other eligible promoters up to 100 million euro. The proposed guarantee instrument is designed to facilitate the financial intermediary to provide new loans for MidCaps, EIB said.
The Investment Plan for Europe focuses on strengthening European investments to create jobs and growth. It does so by making smarter use of new and existing financial resources, removing obstacles to investment, providing visibility and technical assistance to investment projects.
($=0.940557 euro)