Blackstone Group all set to buy Cafe Coffee Day's Global Village Tech Park; firm's debt to come down by more than half post-deal

Blackstone Group is all set to acquire Coffee Day Enterprises arm Global Village Tech Park in Bengaluru in a bid to reduce the parent company’s debt, said a media report. Blackstone Group reportedly inked a definitive pact to buy Coffee Day Enterprises (CDEL) subsidiary Global Village Tech Park for about Rs 2,770 crore, said a report in The Economic Times. Accordingly, Blackstone and South-based developer Salarpuria Sattva will acquire the 90-acre, technology park held by subsidiary, Tanglin Retail Realty, said the report. [caption id=“attachment_2492804” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters[/caption] A report in The Times of India said that the agreement will help bring down by more than half the  Rs 4,970-crore debt of Cafe Coffee Day. As per the deal, Rs 2,000 crore is expected to be paid in the coming weeks and the remaining Rs 700 crore will be paid within the next one year, once formalities on the demerger of the assets are over, said the report citing sources in the know of the matter. In August this year, Coffee Day had announced the sale of its Global Village Tech Park to Blackstone for up to Rs 3,000 crore to cut its debt. The announcement came weeks after Coffee Day Enterprises founder VG Siddhartha had allegedly committed suicide in July this year near Mangaluru. In a letter purportedly written by him, Siddhartha mentioned severe financial stress being faced by his group firms, among other issues. “The board of directors of the company…discussed methods of deleveraging the group. Towards the objective of deleveraging the board discussed and approved the disinvestment of Global Village Tech Park in its subsidiary, Tanglin Developments Ltd, in favour of Blackstone,” Coffee Day Enterprises had said in a BSE filing. “The transaction valuation is about Rs 2600-3000 crore and the company has entered into a non-binding letter of intent. The transaction closure is subject to completion of Blackstone’s due diligence, documentation and receipt of requisite regulatory approvals, which is expected in the next 30- 45 days,” the company had said. On 17 August, Coffee Day Enterprises had claimed its total debt might reduce to around Rs 1,000 crore after adjusting the proceeds from the sale of its Global Village Tech Park to Blackstone. The debt position of Coffee Day Group post-repayment of debt out of proceeds from sale of Global Village is expected to be around Rs 1,000 crore in the next 45 days, it had said then. --With agency inputs