Gică Popescu: Banks boasting to be granting loans are just selling smoke

Former footballer Gică Popescu, who started his own business with the money he earned from football, maintains he plans to develop several real estate and tourism projects starting the end of this year. "Almost all my projects are carried out with money from banks. The problem is that the banks bragging they're granting loans are just selling smoke. They are bragging for nothing. They are unwilling to fund the projects," said Gică Popescu, adding the only bank that offered him a loan was Garanti Bank. He did not give any details about the loan involved. Popescu is the second Romanian investor lashing out at the lending crunch in recent days, after yesterday Dan Şucu, owner of Mobexpert, said that the main problem at present was that lending was frozen for individuals "a freeze that I largely see as artificial". Earnings from football, estimated at between 10 and 20 million dollars, have allowed Gică Popescu to place part of money into real estate projects.