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EUR40m to boost Nasicecement as regional leader in building materials
The EBRD and Zagrebacka Banka are each lending €20 million to Nasicecement, Croatia’s second-largest cement company, to expand its plant near Nasice, in Croatia’s Slavonia region. The funds will also help Nasicecement become a regional market leader in building materials through acquisitions and investment in companies in Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Nasicecement, owned by the Croatian holding company Nexe Group, already has subsidiaries in the three countries. Besides cement, the firm produces clay roof tiles, ceramic tiles and bricks and is active in road-building and other construction.
Prospects for the regional building materials sector are strong. Cement use in Croatia has increased by an average 24 per cent annually over the last five years and is at European Union levels. Cement is among the building materials needed in the rapidly expanding Dalmatian coast tourism industry and in diverse infrastructure projects, in particular the government’s ambitious road-building programme.
With this loan – the EBRD’s second to Nasicecement – the company will further enhance its efficiency and competitiveness and refurbish and modernise the operations it intends to acquire throughout the region, said Andrew Krapotkin, head of the EBRD’s Croatia office.
The loan fits well with the EBRD’s strategy for Croatia, which emphases expansion of the tourism industry and infrastructure in general, and boosting cross-border economic linkages between Balkan countries.
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