Master Team, a banking treasury equipment manufacturer in Serbia, has taken a giant leap towards becoming truly sustainable – largely thanks to credit facilities from Banca Intesa.

The credit allowed Master Team to buy a plot of land in 2020 in Surčin, southwest Belgrade. It used the land to build offices, a warehouse and solar panel production halls through a linked company, Master Solar.

The buildings use low-temperature heating systems, heat pumps, solar heat collectors and photovoltaic solar collectors as sources of thermal energy.

This allows them to function independently of the public energy grid. They use renewable energy for all heating and air conditioning systems, and the excess energy produced is sold back to the grid.

Master Team has become a “prosumer” – a producer and consumer of its own energy for its existing manufacturing business, and has diversified into renewable energy as a business activity.

Slavica Radeljić, the company’s CFO, says: “This will contribute to our sustainable perspective and achievement of the green agenda. Here, all the energy consumed comes from renewable energy.”

Banca Intesa enabled credit for the business in line with its principles of using finance to drive real, impactful change in the face of the climate crisis. Indeed, the business plan of the wider Intesa Sanpaolo Group is to fund companies that commit to production methods that reduce their carbon footprint.

Giuseppe Ferraro, head of the Corporate and SME Department at Intesa Sanpaolo’s International Subsidiary Banks Division– of which Banca Intesa is a subsidiary – says: “For years, we have had the chance to work with clients always ready to spot new opportunities. We continue to be positively surprised by many of them, fully aware of global innovations to ride.”

The partnership also fulfils the pledge of the Serbian Green Deal, which aims to create a sustainable economy by transforming business practices.

Predrag Milenovic, Head of Corporate, says: “For true longevity in the Serbian economy, innovation must win out. Master Team has shown us how a company can create strong new revenue streams, while also paying attention to the urgent matter of the environment. Economic growth and environmental protection do not have to compete, they can be part of the same goal.”

Ivan Mihailović, a regional director at Banca Intesa Beograd, says: “With economic intervention, we support European companies committed to decarbonisation, energy efficiency and the reduction of industrial emissions. The goals of a single company can influence the journey of an entire nation.”