Coffee Day reports Q3 defaults on debt of Rs 489 crore

Trouble appeared to be brewing at Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL) on Thursday with the company saying it has defaulted on payments of interest, repayment of principal amount on loans from banks and financial institutions and unlisted debt securities.

The default is for the quarter ended December 31, 2019 on a total debt of Rs 489.48 crore, it said in regulatory filings at stock exchanges.

While the loans or revolving facilities like cash credit from banks or financial institutions were to the tune of Rs 280 crore, the amount outstanding for unlisted debt securities like non-convertible debentures and non-convertible redeemable preference shares totalled Rs 200 crore.

In September 2019, CDEL executed definitive agreements with entities belonging to Blackstone Group and the Salarpuria Sattva Group for investment in GV Techparks Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of group company Tanglin Development Ltd (TDL), at an enterprise value of Rs 2,700 crore.

CDEL had said the transaction will substantially bring down the debt level of the group which was earlier disclosed at Rs 4,970 crore.

It was the first major divestiture by the group which has also been in talks to sell its logistics subsidiary Sical and flagship retail business Cafe Coffee Day.

The company has been in rough waters after its founder V G Siddhartha took his own life as debt strains began to emerge in his company. Since his death in July last year, CDEL has been trying to divest its assets to pare debts.

On July 30, CDEL informed stock exchanges about Siddhartha's disappearance. In a letter that was purportedly written by him, the Cafe Coffee Day founder said: "I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares.