VG Siddhartha's kin, Blackstone to resume talk for Coffee Day tech park sale: Report

Talks between representatives of the VG Siddhartha and US Buyout fund Blackstone are going to resume for the sale of a 90-acre technology park, according to a report by The Economic Times.

The technology park is owned by the Coffee Day Group. The estimated worth of it is at around Rs 3,000 crore, sources said to the paper. The report suggests that, if the sale of the park is successful, it will reduce a significant portion of the debt and prioritize putting the group back on track.

Moneycontrol could not independently verify the report.

“There were negotiations with representatives of Siddhartha’s family. However, at this point, we cannot say how soon these negotiations can be converted into a transaction,” sources said to the paper.

The total debt of Coffee Day Enterprise stands at Rs 6,547 crore, comprising loans from banks and securities sold to mutual funds, according to regulatory filings. The report also states that Siddhartha had an additional Rs 1,000-crore debt through entities that housed his personal holdings.

Blackstone has been acquiring commercial office space in India over the last few years and is the world’s largest alternative assets manager, currently owning 120 million sq. ft. of commercial real estate.
Tanglin Retail Realty, a Coffee Day group’s subsidiary, is the developer of the IT-focused Global Village Tech Park. The report quoted the late VG Siddhartha’s note left to the “Coffee Day family” which estimated that the tech park would generate Rs 250 crore in rentals over the next one year. In the note, he also valued the Global Village at about Rs 3,600 crore.

The talks between Blackstone and Siddhartha reached an advanced stage in December 2018, with both sides close to signing a term sheet, said sources to the paper. But, Siddhartha left this deal to focus on his Mindtree stake sale to L&T.