ZAGREB, April 6, 2018 – The Hrvatske Ceste, Hrvatske Autoceste and Autocesta Rijeka-Zagreb road management companies signed loan contracts with eight banks on Thursday. That is the final step in the second round of the financial restructuring of the road sector, the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure said on Friday.
The loan contracts were signed with Zagrebačka Banka, Privredna Banka Zagreb, Erste Bank, Splitska Banka, Croatian Postal Bank, Croatia Banka, OTP Banka and Istarska Kreditna Banka.
The ministry explained that this represented the final step in the second phase of the financial restructuring of the road sector, and that is a “jumbo” loan which reschedules the sector’s debts and which, together with previously arranged terms on the international market, will enable savings of more than 50 million euro.
The loan is valued at 1.8 billion euro and was approved by the government at a cabinet session on March 29. The loan will be divided between Hrvatske Autoceste (1.14 billion euro), Hrvatske Ceste (467 million euro) and Autocesta Rijeka-Zagreb (202 million euro).
Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure Oleg Butković expressed his satisfaction with this step in the financial restructuring of the road companies. He recalled that, in addition to the financial restructuring, it was essential to restructure business operations too. “Measures related to sector policies will continue this year too, with a continuing reduction of the costs of maintenance and business operations. These steps are essential for the further implementation of the restructuring process in the road sector and are part of the National Reform Programme,” Butković said.
Finance Minister Zdravko Marić especially thanked the World Bank as a partner in this project for offering a guarantee of 350 million dollars. He also thanked the domestic financial industry, business consultants and all those who have worked on realising this project. “This project confirms the support that the Croatian financial sector is giving to the revival of the Croatian economy and the development of the road infrastructure, and is an example of open communication that the Finance Ministry has with domestic banks,” Marić said.
