Coffee Day Board appoints S.V. Ranganath as interim chairman

The board of Coffee Day Enterprises on Wednesday appointed S.V. Ranganath as its interim chairman, after the police in Mangaluru earlier recovered the body of its founding Chairman V.G. Siddhartha almost 36 hours after he went missing.

The board in its meeting, which commenced at 10.30 a.m. and went on till 1 p.m., also decided to appoint Nitin Bagmane as the interim Chief Operating Officer (COO), a company statement said.

"Constitution of an Executive Committee comprising S.V. Ranganath (Non-Executive Independent Director), Nitin Bagmane (COO) and R. Ram Mohan (CFO) to exercise the powers previously vested with the Chief Executive Officer of the Company and the Administrative Committee constituted by the Board in 2015," it said.

The board will, in due course, prepare a detailed charter of authorities vested in the executive committee and approve the same, the statement said, addin that the executive committee will, inter alia, explore opportunities to deleverage the Coffee Day Group.

After Cafe Coffee Day owner went missing late on Monday, his body was fished out of the Netravathi river in Karnataka by a group of fishermen, some distance away from the bridge where the coffee baron was last seen.

The company further said that the board took cognizance of statements in the purported letter from Siddhartha relating to financial transactions outside the knowledge of the senior management, auditors and the board.

"While the authenticity of the letter is unverified and it is unclear whether these statements pertain to the company or the personal holdings of V.G. Siddhartha, the board took serious note of the same and resolved to thoroughly investigate this matter."

Condoling Siddhartha's demise the board said that it had resolved to lend its "support and expressed full confidence" in the company's management team.

The Board also took note of a message from Siddhartha's wife Malavika Hegde expressing support and trust in the company's professional team and the common effort to look after the interest of the employees and all other stakeholders, said the statement.

( With inputs from IANS )