ZAGREB, January 28, 2019 - The Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) on Monday signed a 70 million-euro investment programme to support fast-growing SMEs and mid-caps established and operating in Croatia.
The investment programme is supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), the core of the Investment Plan for Europe, according to a press release issued on the EIF web site.
The event at which the NPI Mandate Framework Agreement was signed, launched the initiative called CROGIP - Croatian Growth Investment Programme.
The HBOR management board chair Tamara Perko said at the ceremony in Zagreb that the agreement was supposed to help develop venture capital industry in the country.
HBOR and EIF each will participate in the programme with 35 million euro, "to finance this jointly developed programme and the combined commitments of 70 million euro are expected to catalyse additional private-sector investments into equity funds."
"A key programme objective is to support the emergence of fund managers, which focus a significant part of their investments into Croatian SMEs and midcaps," reads the press release.
EIF Chief Executive, Pier Luigi Gilibert was quoted as saying that "this new agreement will support the emergence of a sustainable private equity market in Croatia and to attract private investors to this market, by helping both national and international fund managers to target SMEs and midcaps," he added.
The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank group.
More news on the HBOR can be found in the Business section.
