Coffee Day Group repays Rs 1,700 crore to 13 banks, financial institutions

Bengaluru: The Coffee Day Group on Friday cleared a third of its debt to banks and other lenders, within hours of receiving Rs 1,700 crore as the first tranche of money from its deal to sell Global Village Tech Park to US private equity firm Blackstone.

With this repayment, the Coffee Day Group's debt has come down to about Rs 3,100 crore, including Rs 1,400 crore on the books of subsidiary Sical Logistics.

It fully repaid 13 banks and financial institutions. Standard Chartered Bank and Axis Bank received about Rs 500 and Rs 415 crore, respectively, while Piramal Finance got about Rs 200 crore and Yes Bank Rs 108 crore, company sources said on the condition of anonymity. Kotak Bank and RBL Bank were among the others who got money.

Coffee Day did not respond to an email seeking comment, while Blackstone declined comment.

The Blackstone group had earlier paid about Rs 200 crore ahead of the registration process. The private equity giant will release the balance after completing other regulatory formalities which may take about four to five months, an executive said. An industry source claimed Blackstone owes about Rs 475 crore to Coffee Day group which it will pay in 9-12 months.

The Rs 2,700 crore sale transaction of Global Village Tech Park in Bengaluru was completed last week, after the Karnataka registration authorities transferred the title of ownership.
In September last year, Coffee Day Enterprises signed definitive agreements with Blackstone and the Salarpuria Sattva Group to sell its tech park, after the company fell upon hard times following the death of founder VG Siddhartha in July.

The homegrown café chain operates has about 1,470 outlets and 59,500 vending machines across India, and employs about 20,000 people. Global Village is a 90-acre IT-focused tech park off Mysuru Road.