Lalor is no Iacocca

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I READ with interest Mr. Geof Brown's article entitled 'Turning bad business around' in The Gleaner of July 28. The comparison of Chrysler/Iacocca to LoJ/Lalor is patently absurd. In the first place as Mr. Brown stated, Mr. Lalor took over in 1996, not yesterday. In July 1997, the company received a loan from FINSAC for $1.7 billion. The next venture to fold was Citizens Bank along with the unhappy investors of a major bank in Puerto Rico.

I also understand that it was Mr. Lalor's idea for LoJ to purchase the shares of CIBC, another failure. ICWI, a company Mr. Lalor has owned and managed from inception, has not made an underwriting profit in years. Mr. Brown also mentioned the foreign company subsidiaries are profitable ­ had Chrysler had profitable subsidiaries in foreign countries does one not believe that the US Gov't would have forced the sale of these companies before injecting substantial cash?

Last but not least, if Mr. Lalor was the new 'Iacocca' of the Caribbean with a 'solid' five-year plan to return the company to solvency by 2002, why aren't the banks and private investors standing in line begging Mr. Lalor for the chance to lend him $2 billion?

I am etc.,

JERRY MILLER

E-mail:

jmiller_31305@yahoo.com

Miami, Florida

Via Go-Jamaica

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