Business

In recent business circles, unofficial information has emerged that Starbucks, one of the world's most famous coffee chains, is finally coming to Croatia. More specifically, the chain is said to be coming to the shopping center in the popular Cvjetni Trg in Zagreb, which the Austrian Supernova company took over from the entrepreneur Tomislav Horvatinčić, reports Novac.hr on February 19, 2019.  Although Horvatinčić, or his company Hoto, sold the complex in the center to the Austrian company, he kept the underground garages at the location and remained as a leaseholder for the My Way restaurant, which opened in 2016. Allegedly, the…

ZAGREB, February 19, 2019 - The European Commission has nothing against the government and the strategic partner participating 50:50 in the interim financing of the Uljanik shipbuilding group until a restructuring programme is drawn up, Croatian Economy Minister Darko Horvat said on Monday. "The European Commission does not explicitly ban interim financing but still insists that it be 50:50. This interim financing would be part of the restructuring programme and will be part of the total volume once it is adopted," Horvat told Croatian reporters after a meeting at the Commission. He estimates that 600 million kuna is necessary to…

ZAGREB, February 18, 2019 - Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said in Berlin on Monday at an annual event organised by small and medium-sized businesses that she wanted to encourage German entrepreneurs to intensify their investments in Croatia. "Economic cooperation with Germany is very important to Croatia, as Germany is Croatia's fourth most important investment partner," Grabar-Kitarović said at the conference of the German Association for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses in the capital city. She underscored that Croatia's export to Germany had been growing following Croatia's EU entry. Grabar-Kitarović said Croatia's priorities were entering the euro area and the Schengen zone,…

ZAGREB, February 18, 2019 - A Zagreb County Court panel on Monday dismissed a motion for their recusal filed by the defence of former prime minister Ivo Sanader in the INA-MOL corruption trial, in which the other defendant is Zsolt Hernadi, CEO of the Hungarian energy company MOL, who is beyond the reach of the Croatian authorities. Panel president Maja Štampar Stipić also dismissed a motion to postpone today's hearing, filed by Sanader's new court-appointed attorney Nikola Drobac. Instead of three months he had requested to familiarise himself with the case, he was given one month. The panel found that…

ZAGREB, February 18, 2019 - Croatian Economy Minister Darko Horvat said in Brussels on Monday that talks would be held with European Commission officials to discuss the situation in the ailing Uljanik shipbuilding group, after which more would be known as to whether and how much the Croatian state may become involved in dealing with the crisis in the Pula-based group. Horvat was attending a meeting of the Competitiveness Council and his assistant Zvonimir Novak was heading a delegation that would discuss Uljanik with EC officials. "I expect talks with the EC on the possibility of bridging over the period…

ZAGREB, February 18, 2019 - Several Croatian companies are presenting their products at the IDEX defence industry exhibition in Abu Dhabi from February 17 to 21, the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK) said on Monday. The Croatian companies exhibiting at the world's largest defence industry show are Šestan Busch, Galeb, Agencija Alan, DOK-ING, Odjeća and Čateks. One of the novelties of the exhibition is that it includes more and more dual-purpose products, or those that can be used for both civilian and military purposes, the HGK said. The HGK vice-president for industry and energy, Tomislav Radoš, said that Croatian defence…

In late March, the first of the three world's leading credit rating agencies, S&P, will publish a revision of the Croatian credit rating, and local economic experts believe that this announcement will bring a return of the credit rating to the investment level, reports Večernji List on February 17, 2019. S&P was also the first agency to drop the country's credit rating to the junk bond status in 2012 after it saw the government's lack of control over public finances and its lack of capacity for structural reforms. Seven years later, Croatia has not really implemented any reforms, but it…

ZAGREB, February 16, 2019 - The Croatian National Bank (HNB) has been warning since late 2018 about a strong increase in all-purpose personal loans, and in an interview with the Novi List daily of Saturday, Governor Boris Vujčić said the central bank would introduce measures to curb their excessive growth. HNB statistics show that total household lending in late 2018 was 124.4 billion kuna, 5.5 billion kuna or 4.6% more than at the end of 2017. With a 38.3% share in total household loans, all-purpose personal loans were 11% up in December 2018 to 47.7 billion kuna. December 2018 was…

ZAGREB, February 15, 2019 - With 8.5 billion kuna (1.15 billion euro) worth of EU-funded projects agreed in 2017 and 2018, the City of Zagreb takes the lead among Croatian regions in absorbing EU funds, followed by Dubrovnik-Neretva County with 4.4 billion kuna (595 million euro), the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds said on Friday. The ministry said in a statement that a considerable increase in the number of EU-funded projects had been recorded in the term of the present government, adding that the total amount of the contracts agreed had increased from 985 million euro at the…

ZAGREB, February 15, 2019 - Minister of the Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković said on Friday that the state-owned Hrvatske Ceste (HC) road construction and management company was not surprised by the appeal against the tender for the construction of access roads to the future Pelješac Bridge. Responding to questions from the press at the presentation of a project to modernise port infrastructure in the northern coastal town of Crikvenica, Butković said that the appeal was lawful and added that HC would respond to it within 30 days. He said that the State Commission should deal with the…