HAMAG-BICRO and HBOR signed an Agreement on Guarantees to Entrepreneurs

Mr Vjeran Vrbanec, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Croatian Agency for SMEs, Innovation and Investments (HAMAG-BICRO) and Mr Hrvoje Cuvalo, MSc, President of the Management Board of the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) signed today the Business Cooperation Agreement for the implementation of the national guarantee programme PLUS and interest rate subsidy under the NRRP.

By signing this Agreement, HBOR will offer its clients - small and medium-sized entrepreneurs - more favourable terms and conditions of financing under its loan programmes for financing of investments and working capital, while HAMAG-BICRO will provide beneficiaries with a quality insurance instrument in the form of an unconditional guarantee to ensure the repayment of up to 80 % of the loan principal amount that HBOR will approve to clients.

"The HAMAG-BICRO guarantee is an instrument for securing an entrepreneur’s investment or investment in working capital that is issued to secure a portion of the loan principal or leasing," said Vrbanec, and added that the loan could be utilised for the financing of current operations or for investment in new projects.

"Small and medium-sized entrepreneurs are HBOR’s key clients, and this is why the continuation of this successful cooperation with HAMAG-BICRO is extremely important for us. The new guarantee programme provides entrepreneurs with easier access to finance, with reduced interest rates and costs of insurance, by which we support additionally their growth and development. We are among the first banks to sign this Agreement, through which we provide additional opportunities for direct investment loans and working capital loans, and we continue to contribute to the development of small and medium entrepreneurship in Croatia," said Hrvoje Čuvalo, President of the Management Board of HBOR.

An entrepreneur with insufficient collaterals must, together with the creditor, submit a guarantee application and the prescribed documentation, so that HAMAG-BICRO can assess the possibility of issuing a guarantee. After the documentation has been submitted, financial analysts of HAMAG-BICRO start the processing of guarantee application, i.e. they check the status and financial documentation, economic feasibility of the project, management adequacy and other preconditions for guarantee issuance, after which they make a favourable or a negative decision on guarantee approval that is sent to the lender.