Bengaluru, July 30: Only a month ago, he was reported to be looking at a valuation of up to Rs.10,000 crore for a stake sale to Coca Cola. On Monday evening, however, he went missing near Mangaluru, sparking rumours and plunging the stock of Café Coffee Day (CCD) at the bourses to an all-time low by 20% at Rs.153.40.
CCD’s founder-proprietor V G Siddhartha has been one of the most successful entrepreneurs of India. He had founded India’s famous coffee house chain in 1996 with over 1,700 outlets in the country and overseas now. He had married the daughter of former Karnataka CM and ex-External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, who is now a senior BJP leader.
His disappearance, therefore, created a flutter in the country’s corporate and political circles. Predictably, a high-level search was mounted to trace his whereabouts after he went missing near a river in Mangaluru district on Monday evening.
Apparently under pressure from lenders—on March 31, 2018, CCD was burdened with a debt of nearly Rs.3,000 crore—he wrote an emotional letter on July 27 to the company’s Board expressing his inability to take any more pressure from a private equity partner who allegedly forced him to buyback shares. “I fought for a long time but today I gave up.” The last call he gave was to the company’s CFO.
He narrated how his companies, during the last 37 years, created around 30,000 jobs. Another 20,000 jobs were created by technology firm Mindtree (in which he is a large stakeholder). He said he had “failed to create the right profitable business model.” His stake sale in Mindtree would have turned CCD debt-free.
He also mentioned a former Director-General of Income Tax Department for “harassment” in the form of attaching the company’s shares, twice, to block his Mindtree deal and related issues. “This was very unfair and has led to a serious liquidity crunch.”
According to an FIR filed by his driver, Basavaraj Patil, Siddhartha had asked him to stop the vehicle and wait for him at one end of a bridge on the Nethravati River near Mangaluru on Monday evening, saying he would return after a walk. After waiting for a couple of hours, a concerned Patil called Siddhartha but his mobile phone was switched off. The driver then informed the businessman’s family and others.