February 7 (SeeNews) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) invested 297 million euro ($318 million) in the Croatian economy last year, up from 200 million euro invested in 2021, it said on Tuesday.
The current EBRD portfolio in Croatia totals 989 million euro, the EBRD said in a statement emailed to SeeNews.
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2022 was a record year for the private-sector investments of EBRD in the Adriatic country, which accounted for 82% of its annual business volume, the EBRD said in a press release last week. Most of the funds, 63%, supported green economy transition projects.
The bank’s private-sector financing in Croatia in 2022 included 57 million euro for renewable energy generation. Some 43 million euro of that was lent to Taaleri Energia and ENCRO Kunovac JV for the country’s first utility-scale renewable project outside of a renewables subsidy scheme.
The bank provided a 35 million euro loan to Studenac, Croatia’s largest food retailer by number of stores, to finance its expansion, including the acquisition of the Pemo and Lonia food retailers.
The EBRD made also a 10 million euro investment in Croatia’s first sustainability-linked bond issued by Meritus Ulaganja (M+) group, a leading independent business process technology outsourcing provider in Southeastern Europe.
($=0.933 euro)