EXCLUSIVE

Harshad Thakkar

mobile phone

wallet

passport

Ashapura Intimates Fashion Ltd

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Harshad Thakkar, chairman and managing director of Ashapura Intimates Fashion Ltd, left behind an apology note (above) for his company’s stakeholders

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: Mirror accesses letter left behind by Ashapura Intimates boss, who has been missing for over two weekswas last seen in his office on Oct 2. The family lodged a missing complaint only on Oct 8. He left his, andbehind.Chairman and managing director of. Harshad Thakkar, who has been reported missing, has blamed stock market manipulation by his rivals for the dramatic drop in the company’s stock price.In a note left behind by him, Thakkar has apologised for letting the company’s stakeholders down and causing them financial loss. “I don’t want anything from anyone. I don’t have any requirements and I don’t know what will happen to me. I am asking for your forgiveness. I can’t live with burden of the fact that I am responsible for the losses suffered by so many people (sic),” Thakkar’s note written in Gujarati says.Thakkar was last seen in his Dadar office on October 2. However, the family lodged a missing complaint with the police only on October 8. Curiously, Thakkar left his mobile phone, wallet, and passport behind.The note addressed to family, friends and employees says that he mortgaged his personal wealth to buy back the company’s shares in a last-ditch attempt to shore up the stock price.“But it was not enough. A few people active in the share market are responsible for the problems that the company is facing,” the note says.According to his business associates, who did not wish to be identified, said Ashapura Intimates was doing fine till recently. The company clocked a turnover of Rs 384.27 crore in 2017-18 and earned a profit of Rs 62.19 crore, a growth of nearly 194 per cent over the previous year. Even in the first quarter of the current financial year, the company earned a profit of Rs 4.60 crore.However, things began going downhill when the company’s stock suddenly fell from Rs 445 per share to around Rs 350 in the last half of September. Despite Thakkar mopping up shares available in the market, he could not arrest the fall. At the closing of trading hours on Friday, Ashapura Intimates shares closed at Rs 125.75 a piece. The company’s total market capitalisation on Friday stood at Rs 317.03 crore, down from Rs 1,434 crore last year.According to sources, the crash may have been caused by other promoters panicking at the first sign of trouble. Some of them had pledged their shares with financial institutions and when the stock began sliding, they went on a selling spree to pay the margin money.Thakkar’s note says that he is pledging whatever is left of his personal assets, including his insurance policies, to the company.Divakar Shelke, senior inspector of Dadar police station, said investigators have spoken to all his friends, relatives, and associates.“But we have not been able to make any headway. Since he left behind a note, we don’t suspect any foul play,” he said.Thakkar’s was a typical rags-to-riches story. He arrived in Mumbai fromin 1993 and started working as a salesman at his uncle’s lingerie store in Mulund. He later joined a more upscale lingerie store on Napean Sea road. After learning the ropes of the business, he set up his own manufacturing unit in 1999 and launched two lingerie and innerwear brands—Valentine and Tricci. In 2013, he listed his company on the Bombay Stock Exchange.