VG Siddhartha, the Chairman and Managing Director of Coffee Day Enterprises, did not draw any salary. As per the company's annual reports between 2015-16 and 2017-18, the two promoters drew 'nil' compensation from the company. Siddhartha, along with other non-executive directors of the company, were not paid any remuneration during FY16-18.
The non-executive directors who did not draw their salaries include Siddhartha's wife Malavika Hegde, and the Chief Executive Officer of KKR India Sanjay Omprakash Nayar. Notably, KKR Mauritius PE Investments is the second biggest overseas corporate investor in Coffee Day Enterprises.
Siddhartha, who founded the company in Bengaluru, has been missing since Monday evening. He was last seen near Netravati dam site close to Mangalore. In what is purportedly his suicide note, Siddhartha said that he had "failed to create the right profitable business model" despite his best efforts.
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"I would like to say I gave it my all. I am very sorry to let down all the people that put their trust in me. I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares, a transaction I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend," Siddhartha wrote in the letter he supposedly wrote before his disappearance.
In his letter, Siddhartha also blamed the former Director General of Income Tax Department for the liquidity crunch at the company. "There was a lot of harassment from the previous DG income tax in the form of attaching our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking position of our Coffee Day shares, although the revised returns have been filed by us. This was very unfair and has led to a serious liquidity crunch," he wrote.
(Edited by Vivek Punj)