Indian coffee tycoon Siddhartha's body found

Shares in Coffee Day plunged 20 per cent on Wednesday to a new all-time low of 122.75 rupees, fresh off the back of another 20 per cent slide on Tuesday.

The company said directors had discussed a letter to the board purportedly signed by the 57-year-old chairman in which he admitted mistakes handling his affairs.

"I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me," said the letter, which was released by the company.

"I fought for a long time but today I have given up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares."

He also said he had faced "a lot of harassment" from the Indian tax authorities.

"My intention was never to cheat or mislead anybody, I have failed as an entrepreneur," he declared in the letter, which was dated Jul 27.

Siddhartha's letter also mentioned hidden transactions that even auditors and senior managers were unaware of. Reuters was not able to confirm the authenticity of the letter, which was available on social media and published by local media.

SAVVY INVESTOR

Siddhartha's family has been in the coffee business for more than 130 years.

On taking it over, he set up the Cafe Coffee Day chain in 1996 and also became one of the world's biggest coffee traders, as well the as owner of Asia's biggest coffee plantation.

Cafe Coffee Day has more than 1,700 stores, mainly in India, but also in Malaysia, Egypt, Czech Republic and Austria, employing more than 30,000 people. Starbucks has so far managed to open just over 150 stores in India.

Siddhartha, who owns a direct stake of 32.75 per cent in Coffee Day Enterprises, was also widely seen as a savvy investor who made some prescient early investments in Indian IT service firms like Infosys Ltd and Mindtree in the 1990s, years before global firms began to bet on Indian startups.

But his Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd recently faced queries over outstanding debt, competition from trendier rivals, and scrutiny from tax authorities over unpaid dues.

Siddhartha, his family and their holding companies pledged or encumbered about 75.7 per cent of their stake in Coffee Day toward various borrowings. And Coffee Day's 2018 annual report showed Siddhartha had personally guaranteed most of the borrowings.

Siddhartha owned about 12,000 hectares of plantations and his Amalgamated Bean Company (ABC) is India's largest exporter of green coffee.

Siddhartha married a daughter of S M Krishna, a former foreign minister and chief minister of Karnataka, making him one of the country's best-connected tycoons.

But his empire came under pressure after the tax authorities launched raids on company offices in several cities in 2017. Reports said Siddhartha was in talks with Coca-Cola about selling a major stake.