Hello and have a wonderful week! Yesterday I returned from Greece back to Romania, so as to have the time to finish 6 (!) meetings (2 last night and 4 today) before I go to the airport in the afternoon and fly to Nice. From there Cannes is just half an hour drive and it is our final destination for this week. My company, MORE International Invest, will participate once more to the no. 1 Real Estate exhibition of the world, being one of the two Romanian agencies who do this. The predictions speak for 20 – 40% less visitors than last year and I am really curious to see what will happen there. Except [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]A major “agriculture opportunity” covered by a fine…
Buna ziua to everyone. Couple of days ago I read in the news that European Union fined Romania with 8,4 million euro. The reason was the country’s delay of the payments to the owners of agricultural lands based on how many hectare they own. The institute which had to pay by end of June 2008 is called APIA and the money comes directly from European Union. Romania must present its arguments until 10 of March, which is next week. It is definitely not my business to talk a lot about this specific issue, but I take advantage of this news so as to present to you a major opportunity for Romania, which [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]Hope between the clouds?
Bucharest was cloudy today in the morning… the traffic was not dramatic (thanks to some excellent policemen who really did good work) and the plane half empty as it usually happens since the end of 2008 and especially since the beginning of the year. I was just preparing for my usual sleep on board (sorry, guys, if I had been snoring, I apologize), when I saw someone I know, flying to Athens, just like me. He is one of the top investors in this country, but I could definitely call him more intelligent, as he sold in 2008 at a good price, without waiting even higher figures (like thousands of [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]More traffic, or my idea again?
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Mar 04, 2009 @ 12:58 PM
Most of you had agreed with the news that Bucharest was less “blocked” during the first two months of the year. All of a sudden, something seems to have changed, since the beginning of last week. More cars on the streets, bigger traffic, more nerves etc. Do you see this too? Is there anyone who can give me a good explanation about it? All opinions are welcomed…
[relevant-to-adsense]Is it possible during this crisis, clients to be respected more?
Ok, it was 2008. And all the “intelligent people” (from business owners to all kinds of employees) were able to treat their clients like garbage. They could easily find many others, they were waiting at the queue. They could humiliate them, blackmail them, and make them feel sorry for choosing to work with them. They could be tough, not negotiating anything at all, rude, arrogant and (I guess) you had to pay for a smile of a waiter (except if you were a very good client, always leaving a huge tip, or a “I tricked 1.000 stupids” new generation tycoon, who didn’t care about prices and tips). Now [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]The majority of people are still sleeping…
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Mar 04, 2009 @ 12:56 PM
I talk with many people these days (actually I managed to have around 10 – 12 meetings daily). Unfortunately it looks like the majority of the Romanians I am talking to did not understand what is going on now in this country. They expect prices to go up again soon, the crisis to end in few months and all things to become as they used to be: Crazy prices, clients begging the owners, thousands of people living a life of a tycoon, based on potential income they expect… You know… they don’t enter into details. They decided that all things will be ok and this is it! Unfortunately the reality [...]
[relevant-to-adsense]My short interview to “Business Review” magazine
Filed Under: Uncategorized on Mar 03, 2009 @ 12:59 PM
Buna dimineata to everyone. Today I have for you a short interview I gave to Mrs. Corina Saceanu, one of the best Real Estate (and not only) journalists I have met in Romania. It was published at the “Business Review” magazine some days ago, but I don’t think that it can be considered as old. She asked several people about the lessons they received from the crisis and here it is what we all replied to her: (for more of Corina’s stories, but also plenty of more interesting and genuine ideas, www.business-review.ro/) Real estate downturn teaches local players the lesson of fundamentals The [...]
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Few days ago, on Tuesday, I had presented to you an interview of Mr Gavin Ryan, an expert in Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds. As far as I understood from your feedback, this subject was really interesting for you, as the official information about this segment is really limited. This is why I decided to address to Mr Ryan again, summing some of your questions and adding some new ones. This domain is really interesting and I think that it worths to know ... 
The economic environment worsens,but good news still exists!
It used to be the opposite. Endless good news flowing, week after week, is creating a feeling of security to everyone. Now this is history, the majority of the news makes us sad, skeptical or pessimistic. But still, even under these circumstances, good news exists, sometimes allowing us to create an interesting “ping pong” between the positive and the negative news we hear. Let us play this “game” a bit… Past due loans in January four times up than 2008 average Past due banking loans recorded in January, accumulated both by individuals and companies, amounted to a record 155 million [...]
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