As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 29th of January, 2020, the Vodnjan-based IT giant Infobip has recently developed a new product that will be offered to their customers, with the announcement of additional employment of thousands of new employees, which is of course excellent news for the Croatian economy.

Infobip's new ''baby'' is a "chatbot platform" developed by many teams and departments within Infobip for six months. Speaking more specifically, it is a new computer programme that will soon be offered to clients who will be able to create their own "chatbot" on the Infobip platform, according to a report from local Istrian portal Glas Istre.

''The chatbot can be very simple and work on the principle of predefined questions and answers, but it can also be a complex computer programme which, by using artificial intelligence, that is, using machine learning and neural networks, can function as a digital assistant and can independently learn, develop and respond to much more complex queries,'' explained Kreso Zmak of the incredibly successful Infobip.

''The chatbot is a computer programme that simulates human conversation whereby end-user inquiries are processed and answered in a completely automated way. The chatbot can be very simple and work on the principle of predefined questions and answers, but it can also be a complex computer programme which, with the use of artificial intelligence, that is, using machine learning and neural networks, can function as a digital assistant and can independently learn, develop and respond to much more complex queries.

We created the chatbot platform as an innovative online solution because we realised that there was a need on the market as end users increasingly wanted to interact with businesses using conversational channels, such as chat applications like WhatsApp and Viber. Today, end users want quick feedback and assistance when using online services, and such a programme can enable them,'' explained Kreso Zmak, a product development director at Infobip.

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When it comes to Croatian companies, there tends to be an enormous amounts of excellent ideas and promising businesses but the state tends to put up too much red tape for them to succeed. Croatia doesn't provide a business friendly atmosphere, nor does it handle investments well, and as for entrepreneurs, they often feel that their only hope is to leave. Infobip from Vodnjan, however, isn't one of them.

We've written extensively about Infobip and how this company has beaten the odds and managed to grow to proportions I imagine not even its founder, Silvio Kutic, could have imagined. This Croatian company has only gone from strength to strength and it seems that that trend isn't about to alter anytime soon.

As Novac writes on the 22nd of January, 2020, the Vodnjan-based IT giant, Infobip, is planning to hire about a thousand new employees, expanding further globally after reaching the impressive figure of 3,000 employees, and ending last year with 2,100 employees.

In addition, by the end of this year, the company expects the completion of the city campuses in Sveta Klara in Zagreb, which should accommodate as many as 650 Infobip employees.

According to a report from Lider.hr, Infobip also announced its plans for placement on the world famous New York Stock Exchange, further development of technological solutions and products in the direction of ''conversational messages'' and ''conversational commerce'', and they just launched their own ''chatbot'' platform, which took six months to develop in total.

Infobip's production will soon be offered to customers who will be able to create ''chatbots'' on our platforms. We aim to get feedback so they can leverage the products, which is in line with our customer-centric strategy. In 2020 we will continue to focus on artificial intelligence and its implementation in our decisions,'' said Tomislav Smiljanić, senior product manager at Infobip.

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A Vodnjan company called Sentinel Marine Solution has signed a contract with the Hanse Group, which entered into the OEM segment and thus opened the door to mass production for shipbuilders.

As Novac/Jozo Vrdoljak/Privredni.hr writes on the 14th of January, 2020, the Vodnjan company Sentinel Marine Solution, with the exception of Vodnjan, has offices in Zagreb and Ljubljana (Slovenia), along with its manufacturing facility. The sixteen employees who work there are focused on development, aided by the 1 million euro venture capital fund of South Central Ventures and the capital of several other partners.

''After five years of development, we've been recognised by the world's largest players such as the Hanse Group, the second largest yacht and motorboat manufacturer in the world. Each of their ships will have a Sentinel system and will be on the Sentinel platform. In addition to them, we collaborate with the brands Fjord, Sealine, Privilege, Dehler, Moody... Our system is also used by Beneteau First and many well-known shipbuilders from Australia to America.

Sentinel also successfully integrates partner technologies such as Torqeedo's electric motors or CZone's most famous digital switching and monitoring provider. Even the great Garmin Marine has chosen Sentinel for its own product range as a telematics solution for business clients, shipbuilders. What we do with shipyards involves a lengthy process, and the results of collaborating with big names are now visible. We've developed into an independent company that operates well,'' explained Draško Andrić, sales and development manager of the Vodnjan company.

Sentinel Marine Solution was launched as a Slovenian-Croatian startup, initially as a basic monitoring model for all ship's devices and a provider of marine internet for private users and charter fleets. In just a few years, Sentinel has become the market leader in developing technologies for smart ships. One of Sentinel's first clients was Jack Shuri, a pioneer of the charter industry in the Croatian part of the Adriatic sea, which he supported at an early stage of development.

''In addition to Surija, the first users were the pioneers of the charter industry in Croatia, such as Ivica Buble, the owner of Dalmatia charter from Trogir. The Sentinel Boat Monitor is actually a gateway that collects all the data on all instruments on board that are connected to the NMEA 2000 network. The read condition communicates with our main gateway, after which any warnings are sent to the shipowner or someone who maintains it.

It's a standard that sets itself as the future of all nautics. Shipbuilders are now our focus. It's a platform that enables the communication of all of the ship's devices and the ship, that is, its users for the purpose of a better navigation experience and easier and cheaper maintenance of the vessel. Due to complete control of our own system, we have our own production of hardware and software, which is a great advantage for us, but it's also necessary if you want to work with the Tier 1 sector,'' stated Andrić.

According to Draško Andrić, today, the Sentinel Marine Solution (in-house solution) is a leader in the market for connected vessel technology, a huge title for this Vodnjan company.

''The service is completely in-house, which means that every aspect of it has been developed in Sentinel. This gives us stability and a system independent of external partnership development. Sentinel's advantage and strength lies in the fact that it can connect to all ship systems and interact with almost all instruments on board, read them and understand what happens on board when no one is aboard,'' he explained.

In the last four to five years, Sentinel has, according to this Vodnjan company's managers, become a leading provider of monitoring services in the Adriatic and worldwide.

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As Adriano Milovan/Novac writes on the 12th of January, 2020, the poor entrepreneurial/economic climate, money worries and mass emigration are increasingly reflected in the dynamics of opening new Croatian companies and businesses.

According to Fina's data, about a thousand fewer Croatian companies and trades were founded through Hitro.hr last year than were founded back in 2018, which is a startling decrease of almost 15 percent.

During 2019, a total of 5914 Croatian companies were established through Hitro.hr, according to Fina's data. Just one year earlier, 6822 Croatian companies and other types of businesses were established through the same service, while back in 2017, the number of established Croatian business entities through that service stood at a much higher 7081. A decrease was also present in 2018 compared to 2017, but it accelerated significantly last year.

Crafts (obrti) recorded a particularly large decline: while 245 were established through Hitro.hr in 2017 and 128 in 2018, only 48 were established through the service last year.

The number of established simple limited liability companies is also down from 2018. In 2018, 4347 were established through Hitro.hr, while 3498 were founded last year, equalling almost a fifth less. On the other hand, in 2019, the number of limited liability companies increased slightly. Back in 2018, 2347 were established through the Hitro.hr service, and 2368 were established last year, which is equal to about one percent more.

Last year, economists were pointing their fingers at a poor and discouraging entrepreneurial climate in Croatia, but also to mass emigration and the demographic crisis, which led to the absence of entrepreneurs in some Croatian municipalities. In addition, they warn that Croatia is too large a public sector, which displaces private initiative. In these circumstances, nothing, not even the ability to quickly start a business through Hitro.hr, can help that much.

''It's a combination of a number of factors which have been present in Croatia for more than two decades now, which have further enhanced emigration. The Croatian economy is simply not an incentive for startups,'' says Damir Novotny, a well known economic analyst.

Novotny points out that in Croatia there are limited possibilities for financing new entrepreneurial ideas through venture capital funds, which in the west play a large role in the first entrepreneurial steps of people with ideas, but who lack the money to navigate entrepreneurial waters. In addition, Novotny adds, the incentives for self-employment provided by the state to the unemployed are relatively small here. In other words, the development of entrepreneurship in Croatia is a major obstacle to an underdeveloped infrastructure, with a particular focus on finance, although some progress has recently been made in this area.

However, Novotny sees perhaps a greater obstacle to a stronger development of entrepreneurship in Croatia in the staggering amount of bureaucracy. Administrative barriers in Croatia remain large and cumbersome, he warns, and regulations are complicated and often changing.

''The entrepreneurial climate in our country is still bad. When abroad, when it comes to administration, you've got the "see you once a year" rule, in our country, it's common for inspections to come knocking on the doors of Croatian companies as soon as they start business, and there are visits that entrepreneurs have to make to various government institutions,'' Novotny notes.

He believes that young people should be directed more towards entrepreneurial waters, so that their goal is not to look for jobs in the public sector after graduation, but to decide to start their own businesses. Although changes have taken place in recent years, they are still, according to economists, insufficient.

Until these changes occur, Croatia will continue to be perceived by the world as a country where it is difficult and expensive for business owners to play, with the state playing a major role in economic life.

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The Zagreb-based technology firm Serengeti is focusing on developing its business west, not east.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Bernard Ivezic writes on the 5th of January, 2020, the first Croatian software company, which the dominant, Indian outsourcing model turned upside down and made emerge as the third fastest growing technology company in Central Europe has maintained its impressive high growth rates.

Zagreb's Serengeti, which employed 80 software professionals back in 2018, will conclude this year with more than 170 employees, 140 of them are in development alone, with revenue expected to grow by as much as 50 percent. According to Fina, Serengeti concluded last year with a massive 35.4 million kuna in revenue, and this year, with the currently projected growth, it expects revenue above 50 million kuna.

Zoran Kovacevic, director of development at Serengeti, says they aim to grow to 500 employees in the next three to five years. In doing so, he emphasises that this will be mostly influenced by the trend of business development on more western markets.

"We grew last year because of the significant influx of new clients, both in Croatia and Europe, especially the DACH region, Benelux and Scandinavia, because there is a great need to develop IT solutions everywhere, as between 60 and 80 percent of companies cannot find the right experts on their own markets,'' says Kovacevic.

He added that Zagreb's Serengeti has found its market space in software development services that include a very wide range of emerging technological trends: machine learning, IoT, augmented reality, computer visions, cloud, microservices, automated testing and DevOps. He stated that they opened an office in Amsterdam a year ago.

"It just isn't possible to succeed today if you don't have a global perspective,'' Kovacevic says. He points out that this is the natural evolution of their business and the plan of the business owners started to realise six years ago when they got their first customers in Western Europe.

"Now that growth is accelerating, in 2020 we're opening an office in Germany and we're considering opening some more offices abroad," Kovacevic says. He explains that their plan is to become a significant player at the European level, and potentially globally.

"However, I think it's important that from the beginning, the emphasis is placed on developing business westward, not eastward, such as Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, because that seems to us to be a more stable development path in the long term," Kovacevic says.

In development, he explains, Serengeti is growing strongly through software development projects in industrial manufacturing, then in the healthcare, automotive and financial industries, and then in logistics and energy. The Croatian software company mainly develops and maintains core systems in the insurance, banking and card business in the financial industry. They help banks to transform themselves technologically towards open banking by moving them to the so-called microservice architecture and cloud. Regarding software development in industrial production, Serengeti works for the Austrian company Fronius.

The company develops and manufactures welding stations used by several well-known car manufacturers in its product lines, and has expanded from battery manufacturing to the production of key equipment and solutions for solar power plants. "We're working on a solution that further facilitates the development of a robotic welding station in line with Industry 4.0 trends, as well as a solution that integrates individual components of solar power plants into one globally integrated system," says Kovacevic.

In logistics, they work with KNAPP to operate a warehouse management system that uses robots, artificial intelligence, IoT and augmented reality, where the goal is to make the entire warehouse fully automated. In addition to working abroad, Serengeti has also managed to develop part of its business in Croatia.

"We've grown locally in public and financial sector jobs, with over half of our employees working in the financial sector, and in this industry, we've grown into one of the leading IT companies in Croatia," Kovacevic points out.

He adds that they have worked on large scale public sector IT systems and development projects and are working with Fina and APIS IT in these types of jobs. He points out that such jobs are done solely through a public tender and are very carefully selected. Kovacevic explains that they see their role in such jobs as a kind of socially useful work, "because with the rich experience and knowledge we've gained on numerous domestic and foreign projects, we can help in the effective computerisation of public administration."

"We're almost exclusively submitting to tenders that are defined to allow for great advancements in our level of quality of service and delivery,'' he adds.

He states that they also cooperate with Mercury Processing International and RBA here in Croatia.

"It was attractive to us to engage in projects where we used a complete cross-section of open-source technologies, event-driven design and microservice architecture, all using the DevOps approach and achieving continuous integration (CI) and even continuous deployment (CD) practices. These practices, such as Facebook, can quickly release new software releases, and this offers them, among other things, unprecedented benefits in realising new functionality and managing IT security risks,'' concludes Serengeti's Kovacevic.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes on the 2nd of January, 2020, the names of companies who under the name of their brand boast city names such as London-New York-Tokyo, are generally large global companies that, due to the nature of their business, must be based in various parts of the world. Although there aren't many Croatian companies of that size and power, every once in a while there are Croatian companies that deploy their headquarter posts and spread their wings abroad.

There are numerous companies of the kind across European and world capitals, and one is Startaparat, with Zagreb-Vienna-Dubai under its name. The Startaparat company is comprised of three women Sanja, Tanja and Helena. Behind them, as they point out, lies a strong, longstanding friendship which has grown through working together at the Bruketa&Žinić OM agency.

Tanja Škorić was a creative director in Zagreb and later a partner at Bruketa&Žinić Vienna. Helena Rosandić Šepić was the director of B&Z in Baku for a number of years, and after that she went to Vienna, too. Sanja Petek Mujačić spent thirteen years in that agency, most of which as a director and board member. Startaparat was initially founded in Vienna back in 2017 by Tanja and Helena, and Sanja joined them in early 2019 as a partner and director of the Zagreb office.

Startaparat's main focus is to create innovative communications solutions that build digital age brands and organisations. Whether it is startups or already established Croatian companies or indeed foreign ones, they help them to adopt a culture of innovation, creativity and change, to reach their absolute full potential.

In fact, they work with Croatian companies and foreign ones that want to grow faster, developing from their original ideas to creating a winning marketing concept. Their business model itself changes the established processes of the communication industry - building a network of teams and experienced professionals/consultants with whom they collaborate on projects - from HR professionals, people operating within the complex digital world, communicators, designers, developers, business consultants, and so forth. Having a presence and experience across different markets gives them priceless insight into a variety of trends, knowledge and practices - giving their solutions some serious strength and weight.

In addition to Vienna in Austria and Zagreb in Croatia, this year, they have a ''set up'' of offices in Dubai, and plans to expand to even more countries. Sanja is a kind of primus inter pares, and today she attributes her competencies to her general education and extensive experience. Sanja, who is otherwise an art historian, has spent her entire marketing career focusing on how technology is changing the world.

"It used to be more from the perspective of marketing and communications, and in the past two years it has been growing from the perspective of management and work in organisations. My favourite topic is storytelling in business, and how much power and strength of the stories in the business environment I reveal to the teams of the largest Croatian companies through interactive workshops. In addition, I'm dedicated to the hot topic - employer branding, but my vision is that that's not only an HR topic, but that it also combines communications and marketing,'' explained Sanja Petek Mujačić.

She added that for several years now, Croatian companies and foreign companies have been intensively introducing technology into all aspects of their business. "The goal is to improve processes, accelerate product development and marketing, improve customer experience - all to meet the increasingly dynamic and rapid market and customer demands.

''Old'' organisations and well-known brands are constantly under the influence of fast moving startups and disruptive innovations. Technology is one solution to how to be prepared for market competition, but the focus shifts to a key company resource - people. Thus, the priority becomes the intensive adaptation of the way in which we work and collaborate, which motivates and inspires us, that is, how companies are organised and how they communicate and create,'' noted the Startaparat director.

She explained that many Croatian companies are still guided by old, outdated principles of management, which, as she says, are in line with the needs of our grandparents' time and not in line with modern business at all.

"In most cases, Croatian companies are not yet ready for radical change - creating a shallower organisation, abandoning the command and control model, less internal bureaucracy//. A system without a strong hierarchy, risk-averse. But... they're slowly moving in that direction.

This transition is not simple and easy, but I believe that the benefits of the changes will be great and will have multiple implications for employee engagement and motivation, and definitely for the creation of innovative and relevant solutions, products and services,'' said Petek Mujačić.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Tomislav Pili writes on the 19th of December, 2019, Ante Mandić from Insig2, Damir Sabol from Photomath, and Ivan Mrvoš, founder of Include - are the most famous names from the Croatian technology community who decided to invest in STEMI educational and technological startups. The Zagreb-Rijeka based company presented its campaign on the Funderbeam SEE platform back on November the 28th, 2019.

The campaign aims to raise a minimum of 300,000 euros that STEMI will invest in growing and scaling its new school-based subscription business model and accessing a part of the global market where more than 3.5 million schools are interested in developing their students' STEAM skills and knowledge. The campaign is still ongoing and investors in STEMI have already indicated an amount of 225,000 euros, as Funderbeam SEE announced on Thursday.

In addition to the investors already mentioned, Vedran Brničević from Suprabit, Luka Abrus and Viktor Marohnić from Five, Hrvoje Pušelj from Dataciph and Tajana Barančić and Mihovil Barančić from Astra Business Engineering decided to participate in this campaign. Tomislav Car from Infinum, Luka Sučić from Eternity, Davor Runje from Airt, Bozidar Pavlović from Oradian, Damjan Miklić from RoMb Technologies, Scott Coleman and Goran Deak from TDA, and Hrvoje Bujas from Crno Jaje also decided to invest.

''We currently have over 150 investors from about twenty countries, and most of them are looking forward to the support of the local tech community, which shows that success is not lost if we stick together. Our programmes need help to reach the global market and people have recognised that,'' said Marin Trošelj, CEO of STEMI.

Include's Ivan Mrvoš said he met a team from STEMI a year ago and has been following their successes ever since.

"The fact that they have already penetrated into nine markets, including the US market, certainly encouraged me to join their investment cycle as a small investor," Mrvoš said.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik/Ana Blaskovic writes on the 16th of December, 2019, in addition to traditional topics such as customs and market access, this should be a new generation agreement as it will also address regulatory issues, barriers and more with a significant impact on trade and investment. Just how much could the EU-Australia free trade agreement benefit Croatian companies?

The Free Trade Agreement, which has plagued the European Union and Australia for the past eighteen months, and could take a year to open, also opens up the opportunity for Croatian companies to step into the large, and hitherto poorly explored, Australian market, which has been continuously recording positive growth rates for the last thirty years. As Croatia formally takes over the rotation of the EU presidency in a mere fifteen days, an Australian mission was staying in Zagreb last week, talking with the Croatian Government and various business representatives about the new agreement.

''The importance of a this agreement which provides business security is that Australian companies, much like others, go wherever the opportunity is. The competition is huge, if opportunities exist and trade is not facilitated, then they will go and look for other potential opportunities elsewhere, where it may be easier, where it's easier to negotiate, where the market may be familiar,'' said Australia's Ambassador to Croatia, Elizabeth Petrovic.

''Almost every Croatian company that has built a successful export model could find a good market for their products in Australia, whether they're in agriculture, construction, logistics, or the pharmaceutical industry. European companies are present in all these sectors in Australia and there are certainly plenty of opportunities for Croatian companies, but many have not explored this market, and many Australian companies have not done so in Croatia either,'' says Jason Collins, Director of the European Australian Business Council in Sydney.

He adds that Australia has very few barriers to business, such as customs, as a result of the reforms, but also says that there are more companies investing in the EU and they're keen to discuss opportunities to come and invest in Croatia.

Despite a diaspora of about 200,000 expatriates from Croatia and their descendants, of the 55 billion dollar annual exchange between Australia and the EU, Croatia contributes a negligible 23.8 million dollars, and Croatian companies such as Podravka and Mlinar remain exceptions. A free trade agreement could open the door to stronger ties, which, with five rounds of talks in a year and a half, is extremely fast for Brussels.

The reasons for this are to be sought in the US-China trade war, which are leading trading partners to both sides in these negotiations.

"The EU's and Australia's main trading partners are going through some tough times, trade is insecure, it can't be taken for granted anymore based on rules," says Juliana Nam of the Australian and EU Mission to Australia.

Australia has concluded eleven trade agreements with countries in the Asia-Pacific over the last fifteen years and today 68 percent of trade is facilitated through preferential arrangements. If it successfully completes negotiations with the EU, that figure will reach 80 percent. The negotiations, however, are entering a phase where more difficult issues are raised, such as EU barriers to agricultural products, customs on EU industrial goods that directly affect the European automotive industry, and also the issue of protection of geographical origin.

"These are difficult areas for us, but we're pragmatic and we want the negotiations to move forward," Nam stated.

It is worth noting that of the total trade value of the EU and Australia, almost half is made up by services. Although Australia is relatively small in population of just 25 million, it is the thirteenth largest economy in the world and this coule represent an exciting opportunity for Croatian companies wanting to broaden their horizons.

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As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 16th of December, 2019, the Croatian company Metus Group, which specialises in the design, installation and maintenance of residential, public and commercial elevators, has unveiled its new, innovative manufacturing facility and the impressive Marly-B Croatian elevator.

The presentation was officially opened by Mr. Fredrik Sederholm, a board member and a representative of Sdiptech AB - a reputable Swedish strategic fund, who also happens to be the majority owner of the Metus Group. The new production facility, located in Farkaševac close to Samobor, covers 1,400 quare metres and is a modern facility that ensures the production of elevators to the highest of standards.

In addition to the members of Metus Group's management, the opening was attended by a number of prominent business partners from here in Croatia and from Europe.

Founded back in 2009, Metus Group has been focused on providing top quality design, installation and repair services for elevators with 24-hour support available to customers since its very inception, and today, this Croatian company employs over three hundred employees, thus making a significant and positive impact on the domestic economy in continental Croatia.

Headquartered in Sveta Nedelja near Zagreb, Metus Group, through its many affiliates in Croatia's immediate region, collaborates with a number of renowned vertical transportation companies such as Thyssen Krupp, Schindler, Kone, Otis, and Tepper here in Croatia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and in Austria.

''Our current position reflects the strength and expertise of our 320 employees who are the bearers of the excellent results of Metus Group in Croatia and beyond its borders. It is my personal honour and privilege to be part of such a successful collective.

This week, we officially opened a brand new, modern production facility with the goal of putting the focus on intensifying production and strengthening our Marly-B brand. It's a modern, functional, quality and affordable preference-adapted elevator in Croatia, with which we want to further strengthen our position here on the domestic market.'' they say from Metus Group.

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As Jadranka Dozan/Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 16th of December, 2019, Croatian Jadroplov has a new opportunity for a "restart" ready and open for it. Last week, the shipping administration, 70 percent of which is owned by the state, reported that they had reached an agreement with Norddeutsche Landesbank in Hanover, after months of negotiations, agreeing that the creditor would agree to write off 40 percent of the claims lodged against Croatian Jadroplov's companies. Norddeutsche LB is ready to write off all of the claims for a minimum of 28 million US dollars.

In order to confirm the agreement, some conditions have to be fulfilled, among which the resolution of Croatian refinancing stands out. But for a this shipping company from Split as a loser in this game, with a financial position that is not very “bankable”, this is not an easy piece of homework at all. The state development bank, HBOR, should offer to lend Croatian Jadroplov a hand.

Deadlines are also important throughout the story of settling things up with the Germans, so the weeks ahead may prove to be crucial. Jadroplov's management, headed by Branimir Kovačić, believe that in the negotiated "forgiveness" procedure of significant parts of the debt, they have a solid argument in the discussions on domestic (re) financing.

If we take a look at the market value of Croatian Jadroplov's assets and the liabilities that will remain after the settlement is completed into relation with one another, the company does actually return to the positive capital zone, and that significantly improved financial picture also makes a long-planned capital increase more likely. There is also a plan which was approved by the European Commission last May, confirming that the business plan was made in accordance with European state aid rules.

The plan provided for aid of 105.6 million kuna, which mostly consists of bank guarantees for refinancing existing liabilities, but with a significant own contribution to costs.

The plan also envisaged refinancing home loans with 8 million dollars of credit, which, with 50 percent government guarantee coverage, would be covered by collateral for the remainder. In this regard, the Croatian Government had also made a decision to grant a guarantee of 24.3 million kuna for a loan of 48.5 million kuna, but so far it has not been possible to realise that move. Whether or not that will happen soon remains to be seen. From Croatian Jadroplov, they hope that there will be those willing to listen for the sake of preserving the business. Among other things, about 600 million dollars in remittances through the salaries of seafarers enter Croatia every year, and a considerable part comes through Jadroplov's ships.

Back in early 2016, at the height of the freight crisis, Nord LB extended its hand to Jadroplov in its fight for survival. It returned three million dollars of deposits as collateral.

Due to the crisis in this highly cyclical type of business, Norddeutsche LB itself is in the process of restructuring, and it announced back during this summer that it was ceasing to re-lend to the sector, or restructure its existing loans.

At the same time, it sold 2.6 billion euros in shipping loans to the Cerberus Financial Fund. For both the bank and for Jadroplov, reaching a deal is a more cost-effective solution and closing claims is also more cost effective than enforcing collection by stopping ships, says Kovačić.

The seizure process is time-consuming and extremely expensive, and through auctioning, prices are well below market levels, he explained. For Croatian Jadroplov, on the other hand, pre-bankruptcy proceedings simply aren'y an option, as this would, de facto, mean total bankruptcy.

Overall, Jadroplov points out that Nord LB has always been a decent business partner and coming to an agreement would certainly improve not only relations between the two but business for this Croatian company.

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