£11m ... luxury resort upgrade, Morocco
The Treasury is underwriting an £11million loan to spruce up a four-star beachfront holiday complex in Morocco and build an extra 300 bedrooms.
The news will shock British businesses struggling to persuade banks to lend them the cash they need.
The loan comes from the European Investment Bank, set up to boost development in the EU and emerging nations.
The British share of the risk means that if the scheme crashed and the loan went unpaid, taxpayers would have to fork out 16p in every pound.
Yet if it is a success, the repayments go back into EIB coffers - while the owners rake in the extra profits.
The Yasmina holiday village near Tetouan - where a week's stay for a family costs £4,500 - is leased to Club Med.
It is part of a French hotel chain owned by bankers CDG Capital, who have assets of more than £20BILLION.
Our investigation into EIB grants also revealed Britain is shouldering the risk on loans totalling £80million for a toilet roll factory in Mexico, £44million for wine-making in Moldova and £3million for tree-planting in the Solomon Islands.
Last night the TaxPayers' Alliance research director John O'Connell said: "We are setting aside millions for ventures overseas yet businesses at home can't get finance they need to grow.
"Hard-working families are already helping to bail out basket case economies in Ireland and Portugal. It would be even more scandalous if they had to fund failed EU investments too."
The EIB - which includes Chancellor George Osborne among its governors - insisted Brits were "unlikely" to have to cough up because they were confident the loans would be repaid.
A spokesman said of the Yasmina hotel loan: "The money is definitely available but negotiations will take another month."
A Treasury spokesman said: "It is for the EIB to comment on loans it makes."
b.flynn@the-sun.co.uk
