It was with much sadness I learned of the passing of one of the republic’s finest business minds—Lawrence Duprey.
Much has been said and written of and about this giant of our business class— some bad, some good things, but rest assured, Lawrence Duprey represented the best of Trinidad and Tobago.
Let me state from the onset, I would never have had a business in this country were it not for Lawrence Duprey and his bank, the CLICO Investment Bank.
As I sought investment funding to finance radio stations i95.5 FM and later, Red 96.7 FM, and still later, W107.1 FM the Word, despite very sound business plans, all the banks refused to lend us a single dollar to begin a company, which once it opened its doors, paid its way and paid its shareholders dividends one year later and onwards—this was the work of Lawrence Duprey and his bank, and the bank’s team of professionals: Lennox Archer and Mala Ghandi.
I repaid our loan in record time, which facilitated other business developments, and these new initiatives, based on research and business plans, were also supported with new funding. Each plan was always scrutinised for weaknesses and deficiencies, and where such were established, we responded with corrective action, which enhanced our business models —this was the relationship we enjoyed with Lawrence Duprey’s CLICO Investment Bank.
As I reflect on the aforementioned, I am given to compare CLICO with the other banks, be it RBC Royal Bank, Scotiabank, Citibank, First Citizens, and Republic Bank. This reflection reminds me of the issues of race and class in the context of banking and availability of business opportunities in Trinidad and Tobago.
In so many ways, Lawrence Duprey transcended the others. He built a business empire which, based on its component parts, mirrored Trinidad and Tobago’s economy.
CLICO would be seen from the platform which grew out the insurance company. Lawrence Duprey added energy with Methanol Holdings, a world player in methanol; he took the initiative in housing and accommodation with the developments of Trincity and One Woodbrook Place, among many other projects.
When one thinks of CLICO and housing and home accommodations, one must stretch one’s imagination for miles along the Churchill-Roosevelt Highway where homes of varying prices cater to all.
He added alcohol with the acquisition of Angostura. He kept Angostura in Trinidad and Tobago at a point when it could easily have slipped out of the port to become a foreign-owned entity.
Lawrence Duprey added shopping malls to the CLICO stable and created a broadcasting network which included frequencies which specifically targeted the mindshare of those he sought to purchase the products he managed and sold.
In so many ways, he linked his plans to the future he held up for his group of companies, which not only operated in Trinidad and Tobago but expanded beyond Trinidad and Tobago, the Caribbean and much further afield; Lawrence Duprey took his business internationally!
He assembled a team of sharp minds around him, and as he developed his appetite for expansion, he moved to take huge stakes of long-established institutions like Republic Bank and One Caribbean Media/CCN/Express newspaper, which, by his ownership of a chunk of the latter’s shares, recently caused the Government to seek to have directors placed on the board of this powerful media company.
He lived the last decade or more away from the viciousness of Trinidad and Tobago, and must have, as I have reflected, questioned why, despite the State being repaid its “pound of flesh”, it has wickedly chosen not to return his business to him.
He has departed this life following a lifetime of building, placing on the record the capacity of people of colour of this country’s ability to be just as good, if not better, than others in pursuit of doing business.
Lawrence Duprey was a darn good businessman!
I salute you, chairman Duprey!
—Author Louis Lee Sing is a businessman and former mayor of Port of Spain.