In an explosive revelation, data swept from stock exchanges and Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ filings has unraveled that deceased Cafe Coffee Day promoter VG Siddhartha may have been under an enormous debt pile of up to Rs 11,000 crore, even though it’s a mystery where such large funds were deployed and how. While listed firm Coffee Day Enterprises reported a debt of Rs 6,547 crore on 31 March, 2019, fresh data from Siddhartha and promoter group’s 4 private holding companies reveals they had outstanding pledges worth Rs 3,522 crore as of fiscal 2018-19.
Besides, Siddhartha, along with two other CDEL directors, had given personal guarantees towards loans worth Rs 1,028 crore raised by Coffee Day Enterprises, the listed firm, according to CDEL’s 2017-18 annual report. Four promoter companies of coffee king VG Siddhartha’s Coffee Day Enterprises Limited (CDEL) had mortgaged shares worth over Rs 3,522 crore to various lenders since 2014 to raise loans, data collated from companies’ declarations has revealed.
It’s still unclear how much of private holding companies’ pledges were towards loans raised by CDEL. Or, whether most of it was towards loans in personal capacity. But at some point the peak debt of Rs 11,096 crore may have become unmanageable for the coffee king forcing him to take the extreme step of jumping to death on July 29, 2019.