The loan will be complemented by a EUR1.4 million grant from the European Commission for technical assistance and performance-based fees.
Hrvatska Postanka Banka d.d. is the first Croatian bank to join the EU/EBRD Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Finance Facility. HPB is strategically oriented towards assisting small and medium enterprises and crafts and thus meets all criteria to be granted this type of loan.
Based on the agreement with the EBRD, HPB will also be given technical assistance and know-how from consultants in the area of process automatisation, employee training and product development.
"Providing support to SMEs is a key strategy of HPB that will also help strengthen the Croatian economy. We will increase our support for SMEs through the development of new, tailor made programs, developed according to their needs. We believe that with the help of this loan we will become even more accessible to entrepreneurs and make their projects more easily attainable", stated Josip Protega, HPB CEO.
Under the project, micro sub-loans of up to EUR30,000 will be made available to local Croatian companies with less than 10 employees and small sub-loans of up to EUR125,000 will be provided to companies with up to 100 employees, the EBRD said in a separate statement.
Charlotte Ruhe, EBRD Director for Croatia, said the Bank welcomed the expansion of the successful SME programme to Croatia.