The head of India’s biggest coffee chain has been found dead after he was reported missing on Monday.
The body of VG Siddhartha, the founder of Café Coffee Day, was found on the banks of Netravati River in Mangaluru on early Wednesday morning, the Indian media reported.
Mr Siddhartha, reeling under business pressure, was reported missing on Monday after he disappeared following a drive to Mangaluru with his driver. He was last seen on the bridge over the Netravati River on Monday evening, the reports said.
Siddhartha, who is the son-in-law of former chief minister of Karnataka, SM Krishna, had allegedly told the board of directors and his staff in a letter that he had ‘failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts.’
In the letter, accessed by Indian news agency ANI, he says he was ‘sorry to let down’ people and alleges harassment by an income tax officer and pressure from one of the private equity partners.
He added, “I would like to say I gave it my all. I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares, a transaction, I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend.
“Tremendous pressure from other lenders lead to me succumbing to the situation,” he allegedly wrote.
Café Coffee Day opened their first café in 1996 in Bengaluru in India’s south. Popularly known as CCD, the chain has over 1700 outlets across India and internationally, in Austria, the Czech Republic and Malaysia.
Café Coffee Day’s current market capitalisation stands at 687 million AUD (INR 3,254.33 crore) which declined sharply by 58 per cent from 1.62 billion AUD (INR 7,690.6 crore) hit in January 2018, according to moneycontrol.com.
On Tuesday, the company’s share was trading at an all-time low after the news broke of Mr Siddhartha’s disappearance.
In the letter, Mr Siddhartha alleges, “There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG [Director-General] Income tax in the form of attaching our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking the position of our Coffee Day shares, although the revised returns have been filed by us. This was very unfair and has led to a serious liquidity crunch.
“My intention was never to cheat or mislead anybody. I have failed as an entrepreneur. This is my sincere submission, I hope someday you will understand, forgive and pardon me,” the letter reads.
The letter purportedly written by Mr Siddhartha signs off on the note that ‘our assets outweigh our liabilities and can help repay everybody.’
The company said it would “ensure continuity of business” in Mr Siddhartha’s absence.
"Company is professionally managed and led by a competent leadership team, which will ensure continuity of business," it reportedly said to the stock exchange.
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