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Croatia-based Mezzanine Partners secured EUR 50 million for its Energy Adria fund and is currently negotiating another EUR 50 million. It will be the first so-called dark green fund in Croatia, according to the firm.
Investment fund management company Mezzanine Partners was established in December 2021 in Zagreb. For more than two years, it has managed the Croatian Mezzanine Debt Fund of EUR 52.2 million intended for Croatian small, medium, and mid-cap businesses.
Krešimir Gjenero, Deputy President of the Board of Directors, said that shortly after the Croatian Mezzanine Debt Fund launch, they started preparing the Energy Adria facility. The idea was to work with renewable energy projects, he told Poslovni.hr.
Negotiations are underway with domestic institutional investors to secure another EUR 50 million
Mezzanine Partners responded to the European Investment Fund (EIF) open call within the InvestEU program for investments in clean energy. It secured EUR 50 million, and now, in Gjenero’s words, the firm is in talks with domestic institutional investors about another investment of a similar volume.
The fund’s goal is to become active by the end of the first quarter of 2025. It would invest in wind farms, solar power plants, and battery storage.
He claimed that the Energy Adria facility could back renewable energy projects of 200 MW in total.
It would be the first dark green fund in Croatia
Gjenaro explained that the fund is regulated by Article 9 of the European Union’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). It entails the highest sustainability requirements, thus the dark green fund nickname, he pointed out.
For example, Alcazar Energy fund, which invests in the Western Balkans, is also regulated by Article 9 of the SFDR.
The Energy Adria fund’s concept is flexible. It offers a co-ownership option or can be the sole owner of the project. For advanced projects, it could provide mezzanine financing.
The facility’s first investment could be agreed upon in 2025. It focuses on Croatia, but there is a possibility of investing in projects in the surrounding countries as well.
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