Coffee Day says exploring opportunities, but no talks with Tata group yet

Debt-ridden Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd on Thursday said it continues to explore and evaluate various opportunities amid reports that it is in talks with Tata group firm TCPL to sell its vending machine business.

Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd (CDEL), however, in a regulatory filing said that there is no such negotiation or events taken place with Tata Consumer Products Ltd (TCPL) in this regard.

Meanwhile, TCPL said it evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis without confirming or denying talks with CDEL.

TCPL's reply came over reports that it is in talks with CDEL to acquire the latter's vending machine business.

"The company evaluates various opportunities on an ongoing basis. As a policy, we do not comment on speculative information," said TCPL.

CDEL, on its part said that as part of an ongoing restructuring exercise, any such proposal by any company is always a subject matter of feasibility studies and the need for requisite consents.

"To this end, there are several ongoing discussions. None of these conversations have reached any conclusive stage, and it would be factually incorrect to speculate anything to the contrary," said a CDEL spokesperson.

If any deal is finalised, then it would be a breather for the CDEL, which is facing pressure to repay debts after its founding chairman V G Siddhartha passed away last year.

Its coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day (CCD) has closed down around 280 outlets in the first quarter this fiscal, taking the number down to 1,480 as on June 30, 2020 on account of profitability issues and the possibility of future increase in expenses.

CCD was operating 1,742 outlets in the April-June quarter last fiscal and 1,752 in the January-March quarter.

CDEL has been paring its debt through the sale of non-core assets after the death of its promoter V G Siddhartha.

Earlier in March this year, CDEL had announced to repay Rs 1,644 crore to its 13 lenders after concluding a deal with Blackstone Group to sell its technology business park.

CDEL in September last year had announced the sale of its Global Village Tech Park in Bengaluru to global investment firm Blackstone and realty firm Salarpuria Sattva at an enterprising value of Rs 2,700 crore.

Earlier, it has sold CDEL's stake in IT firm Mindtree to L&T Infotech.

In July, an investigation into the circumstances that led to the alleged suicide of VG Siddhartha, the owner of the Coffee Day group, revealed that Rs 3,535 crore siphoned out of the company by the entrepreneur's personal firm Mysore Amalgamated Coffee Estates Limited (MACEL).

The investigation report had stated that Siddhartha's "MACEL owes a sum of Rs 3,535 crore to the subsidiaries of Coffee Day Enterprise Ltd".

CDEL consists of 49 subsidiaries.