HBOR IN NINE MONTHS HBOR APPROVED ALMOST 50% MORE LOANS
Hrvatska banka za obnovu i razvitak published today its nine-month financial report for 2016.

In nine months of 2016, HBOR generated total income in the amount of HRK 669.6 million, expenses in the amount of HRK 510.7 million and profit in the amount of HRK 158.9 million. Total assets of HBOR as at 30 September 2016 amounted to HRK 26,796.2 million and rose by 5% compared to the beginning of the year.

More than 2 thousand projects supported

In the reporting period, HBOR supported 2,198 projects of Croatian business entities with the total amount of HRK 8.4 billion through the insurance of export receivables and issuing of performance-related bank guarantees. 2,014 loans were approved in the total amount HRK 6.3 billion, of which 77 percent related to financing of investments. The number of approved loans rose by 47% compared to the same period previous year, and the amount of commitments rose by 11%.

2.5 times higher amount approved to small and medium enterprises

During this year, the majority of HBOR’s loans were again small and medium-sized enterprises for the projects of which the total amount of HRK 4.1 billion was approved, which is almost 2.5 times higher than the amount approved to these entities in the same period previous year. 1,919 projects of small and medium-sized enterprises were supported through these funds. Such large number of supported projects is, among others, the result of implementing measure by which the cooperation with leasing companies and commercial banks were enhanced, all with the purpose of easier access to favourable loan funds for entrepreneurs.

Reduction of interest rates for innovative companies and the companies employing young people

In this period, HBOR ensured the continuation of favourable financing of Croatian business entities through raising of funds of the European Investment Bank in the amount of EUR 400 million.

HBOR started the implementation of financing innovative entrepreneurs with the EIF guarantee, with which already favourable interest rates are lower by 0.422 to 0.572 percentage points for innovative small and medium-sized enterprises. Within the framework of this product, HBOR agreed the loan portfolio of EUR 20 million. The model of implementation will include direct financing of HBOR through the existing loan programmes, thus facilitating the implementation of this product.

For the purpose of promoting youth employment, HBOR joined the Jobs for Youth Initiative initiated by the European Investment Bank, through which investments of small and medium-sized enterprises into education and skills as well as youth employment are financed. The main characteristic of this Initiative is saving on interest rate: total reduction in interest rate is 0.5 percentage points, and is applied to 15 HBOR loan programmes regardless of whether a loan is approved directly or via commercial bank.

A number of export transactions supported

In this period, 161 export projects were supported through export credit insurance transactions in the amount of almost HRK 900 million and export guarantees were issued in the amount of more than HRK 1 billion.