Reportedly the Cafe Coffee Day founder, who came from a family of coffee planters, gave the coffee business a corporate edge. VG siddhartha could successfully integrate operations from coffee growing to retailing chains and the company owned close to 1800 outlets in 6 countries. Furthermore VG siddhartha was also under tremendous pressure from private equity firms, as also tax authorities, as per his letter.
Meanwhile the Congress was quick to blame the Centre for unleashing central agencies against political rivals, the Income Tax authorities denied any harassment. Apparently tax officials are reported to have said that the Cafe Coffee Day owner had in fact, admitted to stashing black money. Previously CCD was listed on both NSE and NSE and was backed by premier private equity companies such as Standard Chartered PE, KKR and New Silk Route. VG siddhartha held the biggest stake in Mindtree and pulled off a major deal with L&T. Siddhartha's letter attributed his woes with the tax officials to this deal, to some extent.
Moreover the Cafe Coffee Day ended up pledging more than 70% of his shares in the holding company to surmount the losses and the total debt of the Coffee Day founder is said to be in the range of Rs. 10,000 crore. Perhaps some of the questions VG Siddhartha's death relate to the relationship between and start-ups and the role of taxmen and central agencies also comes under the scanner.
