The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 40 million loan to Privredna Banka Zagreb d.d. (PBZ) to co-finance projects of SMEs and Midcap companies.

Mr Miguel Morgado, EIB Director in charge of operations in Croatia, stated: “The EIB is again cooperating with PBZ, a long-standing partner in Croatia, to channel long-term financing to SME and MidCaps that form the backbone of the economy and contribute decisively to job creation, growth and innovation through capital investment”.

Mr Ivan Gerovac, Member of the Management Board of Privredna Banka Zagreb, added: “PBZ has been active for many years in establishing and supporting numerous programmes aimed at the further development of entrepreneurship, thereby showing that it plays a significant role in encouraging the growth and development of the country's small and medium-sized segment. This is also underlined by this credit line in the amount of EUR 40 million concluded with the EIB.”

This loan is in line with the EIB’s priority of improving the access of Europe’s SMEs to affordable financing for their activities. To this end, the EIB is joining forces with financing institutions, like PBZ, that know the local market and have, among others, SMEs and midcap companies as their customers.

This project is building on the successful cooperation between the EIB and PBZ. As well as the current operation, the EIB provided four loans totalling EUR 96 million to PBZ in 2001, 2008, 2011 and 2014. All of this previous lending has been successfully allocated to support undertakings of Croatian SMEs and municipalities.