CCD promoter's death led to liquidity crisis, impacting Q2 results: Sical

The company has reported a pre-tax loss of Rs 43.19 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2019, compared with a Rs 7.77-crore profit before tax during the same quarter last year

The death of Coffee Day Group promoter V G Siddhartha earlier this year created liquidity challenges, impacting the financial performance of group company Sical Logistics in the quarter ended September. The company on Friday reported a loss before tax of Rs 43.19 crore during the quarter, compared to a Rs 7.77-crore profit before tax during the same quarter last year. 
 
The company said in a press release: "The liquidity challenges arose on account of the demise of our Promoter, V G Siddhartha". 
 
The results were significantly affected by the liquidity challenges leading to a reduction in revenues during the quarter when compared with the previous one. The operations were heavily affected due to a reduction in volumes, leading to under-absorption of fixed costs. This led to negative earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) and a loss thereof.
 
Subsequently, multiple meetings with lenders to seek a moratorium on debt servicing did not yield a positive result. Bankers continued to withhold collections from operations towards debt servicing, including certain obligations falling due in the future, it added.
 
Further, new projects won by the company in the previous years, which were supposed to commence operations in the current year, were on hold due to current liquidity challenges. 
 
The board of directors is looking at all possible deleveraging options and raising liquidity in the company to revert to normalcy and be in the positive profit zone as in past years, said the company.
 
In July this year, the body of group promoter Siddhartha had been recovered from a river. A day before, according to his driver, he had asked for the car to be stopped and gone out for a walk. In a letter discovered later, the businessman had apologised for failing to create a right profitable model, according to reports.