Lawrence Duprey, who spearheaded last year's acquisition of Lasceclles deMercado only to preside over the collapse of his CL Financial Group a mere half-year later, has resigned from the Lascelles board in the latest retreat from his former corporate empire.

Another Duprey appointee to the Lascelles board, George Leid, has also resigned, according to a posting by the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) on Monday.

CL told the JSE that it expects to make new appointments "within the next 10 days".

But even as the some of the actions of the brash Trinidadian businessman are now being called into question, the simultaneous release of Lascelles' third nine-month accounts confirmed that Duprey's instincts about the Jamaican conglomerate - for which his Angostura Holdings Ltd shelled out more than US$650 million for 86 per cent - may have been good.

Michael Carballo, a top CL Financial executive and the man who ran Angostura up to its takeover of Lascelles, remains on the Jamaican conglomerate board, but there was no word on whether he would assume the chair.

Duprey replaced

Duprey was replaced as chairman of the CLF group two months ago by former Trinidadian central bank governor Euric Bobb. Other directors of the now government-controlled entity include Carballo, Shaffick Sultan Khan, Steve Bideshi, Alison Lewis, Andrew Mitchell, QC, and Steve Castagne.

Even in the global recession and Jamaica's worsening economic situation, Lascelles' - among whose flagship is the rum producer J Wray and Nephew - reported a $140 million, or 11 per cent rise in its net third-quarter profit, to $1.39 billion. This pushed the company's nine-month profit to $2.75 billion, up $450 million, or 14 per cent on the corresponding period in 2008.

However, that year's nine-month profit benefited for a $979 million net gain in finance income - 320 per cent higher than the previous year's - suggesting the company benefited from its cash mountain in an environment of high interest rates.

Profit before finance income and taxation would have still been a healthy $2.38 billion, even though eight per cent lower than last year's.

The nine-month profit was on the back of revenue of $18.87 billion, up $2.26 billion on 13.6 per cent on earnings from the first three quarters of the previous financial year. Lascelles spirits and sugars division accounted for 62 per cent of the group's revenue.

Continued profitability

Lascelles' continued profitability will be good news to the Trinidad and Tobago government, which is committed to a TT$13 billion shoring-up of CL Financial, in exchange for which Durpey had to walk from the group which, over a quarter of century, he transformed from a sleep insurance started by his uncle into one of the Caribbean's biggest conglomerates.

CLF has interest in banking, finance, insurance, energy and and rum - the latter being the primary driver for Duprey's acquisition for Lascelles. He believed that Wray and Nephew's Appleton brands provided a good fit for his Angostura's products to create the critical mass for a foray into the global drinks market.

business@gleanerjm.com