Business

‘I have failed… sorry’, wrote CCD founder VG Siddhartha in letter to directors

By IndSamachar

Posted on 30/07/2019

Cafe Coffee Day founder VG Siddhartha, who went missing from Mangaluru on Monday, had a few days back written a note to his employees apologising for failing to create ‘a right profitable business model’.

Siddhartha went missing after asking his driver to drop him off at the Netravathi bridge in Mangaluru as he wanted to take a walk. There was no sight of him an hour later and the driver alerted the family, and they in turn informed the authorities.

“I am very sorry to let down all the people who put their trust in me. I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure,” Siddhartha, the son-in-law of former Union Minister SM Krishna, wrote in the letter dated July 27

Siddhartha adds that he could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners ‘orcing him to buy back shares, a transaction he 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 adds.

“There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG income tax in the form of attaching our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking 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,” he explains.

“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.

Siddhartha, who started his CCD chain with an outlet in Bengaluru and soon rose 15,000 outlets, enclosed a list of assets and tentative value of each asset with the letter. “As seen our assets outweigh our liabilities and can help repay everybody,” he wrote signing off.