Commenting on his first six months as the US Ambassador to Croatia, Robert Kohorst said that one of the key priorities of his mandate was the business sector.

One example of a successful US investment into Croatia, Kohorst said, was the contract signed between the Travelopia group, owner of an array of global companies specialised in adventure travel, and the Croatian Brodosplit shipyard, to build a €110 million polar cruise ship in the Polar Class 6 class, set to become the biggest ever cruise ship built in that class.

Travelopia group is a company supported by the US investment fund KKR.

Kohorst said he hoped that other US companies would follow KKR’s example and invest in Croatia.

“There had been options all over Europe to purchase that ship, but they thought the quality of the work here, the value of the dollar, was very attractive, and they wanted to work more with the Croatian people,” Kohorst said, commenting on the contract.

KKR also recently got full local regulatory approval for investing in the Croatian Nova TV broadcaster through its portfolio company United Group.

“In addition, KKR has been approved by the government to acquire Nova TV, that’s due to close any day now, and I think that’s an investment of over €100 million also, that will bring US business practices, and hopefully transparency, to one of your media outlets,” the Ambassador said.

The takeover of Nova TV will complete KKR’s acquisition of media operations in Croatia and Slovenia held by the CME corporation, in a deal worth €230 million.

“KKR is very excited about the opportunity to invest in that property and hopefully they will find other opportunities and bring their friends. There’s a lot of very successful US companies that can follow KKR’s lead and come and invest in this country, and we will certainly do our best here at the US Embassy to help them,” Ambassador Kohorst concluded.

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