Coffee Day Management Appoints Interim Chief, To Probe Claims Of Undisclosed Transactions In V G Siddhartha’s Letter

The board of Coffee Day Enterprises has taken cognisance of the the claims made in the unverified letter from its late chief V G Siddhartha and is looking at various ways to bring down the group’s debts, Business Standard has reported.

“While the authenticity of the letter is unverified and it is unclear whether these statements pertain to the company or the personal holdings of Mr V G Siddhartha, the board took a serious note of the same and resolved to thoroughly investigate this matter,” read a regulatory filing submitted by the board.

The board has also decided to appoint independent Director S V Ranganath as the interim chairman, while Nitin Bagmane, chairman of the group’s subsidiary Tanglin, was named as group chief operating officer (COO). They will work with R Ram Mohan, the group’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) as part of the executive committee.

The group is now looking at bringing down its debt which has shot upto Rs 6,500 crore in March 2019, above the Rs 5,100 crore last year. The group plans to bring down the debt to Rs 3,000 crore levels and is evaluating monetising the assets at its disposal.

Among the properties the group is looking at are Global Village tech park located off Mysore Road in Bengaluru, its 12,000 acres of coffee plantation and another 21 acres of un-utilised space in Bengaluru. It may also look at bringing in strategic investors into the group.