By Shakir Husain
NEW DELHI, July 31 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The founder of India’s largest coffee chain is dead and his body has been recovered from a river, Indian police said on Wednesday after the businessman went missing on Monday night.
V.G. Siddhartha’s body was found in the Netravati River in the Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka state, local media reported.
About 200 policemen and divers using 25 boats were involved in the search for the 60-year-old businessman who established Cafe Coffee Day with its first shop opening in 1996.
He had gone to the coastal city of Mangaluru, 350 km from the state capital Bengaluru, and after reaching a river bridge told his driver that he was going for a walk, according to the reports citing local police.
The driver contacted police two hours later after Siddhartha did not return.
Cafe Coffee Day’s management on Tuesday released a letter purportedly written by the tycoon on July 27 in which he says, “I have failed to create the right profitable business model despite my best efforts.”
Siddhartha talked about “harassment” from tax authorities, a cash crunch, and “tremendous pressure” from lenders in the letter addressed to the board of directors and company employees.
“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,” he wrote.
The board, after an emergency meeting on Tuesday, said in a statement that it is “confident that the professional management of the company and each of the entities in the Coffee Day Group and their respective leadership team will ensure continuity of all business operations consistent with past behaviour.”
The company’s stock has suffered a sharp drop since Tuesday and traded at 123.25 rupees (RM7.39) in the afternoon on Wednesday after falling 20 per cent.
Cafe Coffee Day is the largest coffee retail chain in India with more than 1,800 outlets. It has also expanded to Austria, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, Egypt and Nepal.
— NNN-BERNAMA
