Reuters
- The body of India’s missing ‘coffee king’ was found by a fisherman on Wednesday morning.
- V.G. Siddhartha, the creator of India’s largest coffee chain, told his driver he was going for a walk on Monday night but didn’t return.
- The Coffee Day founder appeared to be under pressure from partners, lenders, and tax officials.
- Watch Coffee Day trade live.
The body of India’s missing ‘coffee king’ was found by a fisherman on Wednesday morning.
V.G. Siddhartha, the founder of India’s largest coffee chain, Coffee Day, told his driver he was going for a walk on Monday night but didn’t return. Coffee Day’s board released a letter apparently penned by Siddhartha, in which he described mounting pressure from lenders, tax officials, and a private-equity partner. Some have questioned its authenticity.
Siddhartha complained of a "serious liquidity crunch" in the letter. "I have failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts," he wrote. "I gave it my all but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure."
Shares in Coffee Day plunged another 20% on Wednesday, after slumping 20% on Tuesday. The company’s future is now in doubt, given Siddhartha, his wife, and companies tied to them controlled about 53% of Coffee Day’s equity, according to the Financial Times.
About 41% of Coffee Day’s equity has been pledged as collateral to various lenders, the FT said. The company’s debt surged 29% to 65.5 billion rupees ($950 million) in the year to March, Bloomberg said.
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Source: Business Insider – tmohamed@businessinsider.com (Theron Mohamed)