The Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development (HBOR) on Friday held the first auction for the allocation of HBOR credit quotas to be used in a programme designed to provide businesses with credit for working capital.
HBOR offered HRK 200 million in credit at the auction and 16 banks submitted offers for credit quotas in the amount of HRK 357.65 million.
The results of the auction will be made public at a news conference on Monday, February 22, HBOR said in a statement.
The auction refers to model A, one of the two models envisaged by the government's measures for economic recovery and development, in which the state participates, via HBOR, in the co-financing of bank loans for businesses. In those loans HBOR participates with 40 percent and commercial banks with 60 percent of the funding.
The first HBOR auction refers only to loans with a maturity period of three years, and advantage in the allocation of credit quotas will be given to banks which offer lower margins.
HBOR will issue its 40 percent credit share at an interest rate of 3.8 percent, and how much the final interest rate for businesses will be depends on the interest rate to be set by commercial banks for their 60-percent share.
After the auction, HBOR has three working days to choose the best offers. How much time will pass between the publishing of auction results and the awarding of a loan depends solely on business people and commercial banks.
If business people and banks are ready, business people can obtain a loan practically in 20-25 days, and the loan can amount to a maximum HRK 80 million.
Apart from model A and the state's participation in the co-financing of loans for enterprises, the government's measures for economic recovery and development also envisage model B, which envisages the establishment of a guarantee fund in which the state provides guarantees to cover some of the banks' lending risk.
First auctions for guarantee quotas are to be held in about ten days.
