CIT Group Inc.’s chief executive Albert Gamper, pitching the company's planned US$5.8 billion stock offering, says Tyco International Ltd.'s ownership of the finance company has left him "war-scarred."
Criticism of Tyco, whose accounting is under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission and whose former chief executive was indicted for tax evasion, has become a centrepiece of Mr. Gamper's presentations to potential investors during the past 10 days as he tries to persuade them to buy CIT shares from Tyco.
In speeches to more than 400 investors at Manhattan's Pierre Hotel, the Sears Tower in Chicago and on a Webcast to Goldman, Sachs & Co. salespeople, the man who has led CIT for 15 years blamed Tyco for his company's low credit ratings, stalled earnings growth and inability to win new business. All of that will be set right once CIT is a standalone company, he said.
