BENGALURU: Coffee Day Enterprises Limited announced that it has paid Rs 1,644 crore to its lenders, which has pared the company’s debt to Rs 3,200 crore from Rs 4,900 crore earlier. Coffee Day conjured up the money from the first tranche of payment (Rs 2,000 crore) made by US private equity giant Blackstone, as part of its acquisition of Global Village Tech Park in Bengaluru. In August 2019, Coffee Day had announced the sale of its 3.3 million square feet tech park to the Blackstone Group in a Rs 2,700 crore deal.
The beleaguered firm is also in talks with various groups for sale of its logistics arm. Coffee Day has informed the stock exchanges that it expects the balance amount to be paid after a few regulatory approvals. “Post this payment, the consolidated debt of the company and its subsidiaries stands at Rs 3,200 crore as on March 27, 2020. This includes a debt of Rs 1,400 crore of its subsidiary, Sical Logistics Ltd, where disinvestment process is in progress.
The company and subsidiaries have repaid around Rs 4,000 crore to the lenders since the beginning of this financial year,” Coffee Day said. According to sources privy to the matter, Coffee Day has repaid debts to 13 lenders including Axis Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Yes Bank, Piramal Finance, India Bulls and Kotak Mahindra Bank. The conglomerate paid over Rs 100 crore to its single largest lender Yes Bank, to which it has an exposure of Rs 1,500 crore.
Yes Bank had in fact reportedly stalled the Coffee Day- Blackstone deal seeking assurances for repayment of debts. Coffee Day plunged into crisis after founder VG Siddhartha had committed suicide last year. In a note, he had cited pressure from income-tax department and private lenders. Siddhartha’s family has also approached various buyers to sell its 10,000-acre coffee plantation as well as other assets through which they could nearly raise another Rs 1500-2,000 crore to repay lenders. A Coffee Day statement said that the promoter family was involved in the business after Siddhartha’s death, and that they will sell some part of the coffee plantations to clear debt, and also because they were unable to manage such large holdings. The priority is, however, to keep the business running.