Not for sale
Sir: City & Suburban's bid for Lloyd's of London (28 March) unfortunately tends to perpetuate a misunderstanding of the nature of Lloyd's, by implying he could buy
LETTERS
it in one fell swoop as if it were an insur- ance company. Though it may seem pedan- tic to insist that it is a market association of 25,000 (or whatever) Sole Traders, this fact really does make his take-over bid much more problematic.
Assuming it is the insurance business that he and his Swiss backers want, he will have to acquire the interests of these 25,000 Sole Traders, as well as scores of Managing Agencies — some of which are certainly not for sale at the knock-down prices he is evidently going to offer.
However, if he were to bid for the Corpo- ration of Lloyd's, with a view to administer- ing its properties and various services to the market, he might find a lot of support among the membership, especially for the imaginative solution to the problem of the Rogers building.
M. H Tinsley
The Old Rectory, Limington, Yeovil, Somerset
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