CROATIAN CHOCOLATE MAKER GRANTED DM60 MILLION SYNDICATED LOAN

SYNDICATED LOAN $ ZAGREB, Sept 10 (Hina) - A DM60 million international syndicated loan to Croatian chocolate maker Kras was signed in Zagreb on Wednesday by Caspar von Hauenschild of Germany's Bayerische Vereinsbank and president of the Kras Management Board Boris Marcac. The signing ceremony was attended by Agriculture and Forestry Minister Zlatko Dominikovic, Chamber of Commerce chairman Nadan Vidosevic and representatives of twelve banks which participated in loan syndication. The loan, intended for investment in the first stage of restructuring of the company this year and the next, will be repaid over a period of five and a half years. Marcac said that the loan had been negotiated at a very favourable interest rate, Libor plus 1.65 percentage points, with the possibility of + further reduction. Expressing satisfaction with the loan, Dominikovic said that Kras, as the largest domestic consumer of sugar, flour and vegetable fats, was a powerful generator of growth in the domestic agricultural sector. The loan was syndicated by Bayerische Vereinsbank, Banque Nationale de Paris, Reiffeisen Zentralbank, Creditanstalt-Bankverein, Banca Commerciale Italiana, Bayerische Landesbank, BHF Bank, Dresdner Bank Luxembourg, Schoeller Bank, Bank fur Arbeit und Wirtschaft AG, Die Erste Oesterreichische Sparcasse and Privredna Banka of Zagreb, which provided DM4.5 million. Kras is one of the first Croatian companies to be granted an international syndicated loan. This year the company plans to generate a gross profit of 21.7 million kuna (DM6.2 million), or nearly 17 per cent more than last year. (hina) vm jn 101715 MET sep 97