BENGALURU: VG Siddhartha , founder of Coffee Day Enterprises, has been reported missing since Monday evening from the southern coastal city of Mangaluru, leaving the bean-to-cup conglomerate in disarray and corporate peers confounded by his sudden disappearance. A letter purportedly written by the 58-year-old entrepreneur to the “Coffee Day family”, which alleges that inordinate pressure was brought to bear on him by a private equity investor and tax authorities, has also surfaced.“I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares, a transaction I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend,” Siddhartha wrote in his letter.The letter also refers to “a lot of harassment from the previous DG Income Tax in the form of attaching our shares on two separate occasions to block our Mindtree deal and then taking position of our Coffee Day shares, although the revised returns have been filed by us. This was very unfair and has led to a serious liquidity crunch.”On Tuesday evening, Coffee Day Enterprises Limited (CDEL) sent a communication to stock exchanges acknowledging that its chairman had not been reachable since Monday evening. It also attached the letter supposedly penned by Siddhartha, in which he writes, “I have failed as an entrepreneur. This is my sincere submission. I hope someday you will understand, forgive and pardon me.”Biocon chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw told ET, “The hopelessness he seems to be indicating in his letter on financial stress is a real problem. And the way the stakeholders of the financial sector are dealing with business and dealing with entrepreneurs seems to be what the problem is.”Siddhartha, who left Bengaluru city by car on Monday afternoon, was heading to Karnataka ’s coast, according to a statement by his driver to local police authorities. The driver said he was asked to wait while his boss took a walk by the bridge over the Netravati river, outside Mangaluru city. The Café Coffee Day founder has not been seen or heard from since, leaving observers stunned by the inexplicable development. Authorities have meanwhile launched a massive search operation.The board of Coffee Day Enterprises, which held an emergency meeting on Tuesday, said it had sought the help of local and state authorities. The six-member board includes Siddhartha, his wife Malavika Hegde, former Karnataka chief secretary SV Ranganath, entrepreneur Sulakshana Raghavan, KKR India CEO Sanjay K Nayar and former Bosch executive Albert Hieronimus. Company executives told ET the board will meet again on Wednesday to decide on an interim arrangement. The sources said that despite the claim of a serious liquidity crunch by Siddhartha in his letter, the group has sufficient assets to cover outstanding debts.According to regulatory filings, Coffee Day Enterprises’ debt stands at Rs 6,547.38 crore while assets are estimated to be worth Rs 11,259.07 crore, as of March 31, 2019.Indian banks with exposure to the listed company are not worried as a “significant portion” of the debt was repaid after Siddhartha sold his stake in IT services firm Mindtree, bankers told ET. Siddhartha had received Rs 3,269 crore for his 20.3% holding in the mid-tier IT services firm, which was acquired by L&T in April. “We have been giving Siddhartha credit facilities since 1986, and his track record on repayment has been unblemished,” said MS Mahabaleshwara, CEO at Karnataka Bank, which has an exposure of Rs 152 crore to CDEL.Defending its seizure of Mindtree shares, the income-tax department said in a press release late Tuesday evening that neither Siddhartha nor his company had declared that they intended to sell the shares when there was a case pending against them.The tax authorities said both Siddhartha and CDEL had admitted to unaccounted income of over Rs 480 crore in a sworn statement. The I-T department had conducted raids in September 2017.Meanwhile, a banker told ET that “just a few weeks back he (Siddhartha) was sounding confident that he has almost overcome the ‘immediate obstacles’ because of the Mindtree deal”.Siddhartha wanted to significantly pare debt because he was keen on leaving a deleveraged business to his son, the person said. The coffee entrepreneur is married to the daughter of former Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna. He has two sons — Ishaan and Amartya.“I don’t think he had any trouble with bank-related leverage. A large part of it was recently paid off from the proceeds of the Mindtree deal,” said a person on the condition of anonymity.Another official said the company had been paying dues on time. “It is a standard account backed by promoter pledge and enough real estate as collateral,” he said.Mortgage major HDFC denied any exposure to the group.ET had earlier reported that the Coffee Day group was in talks with Coca-Cola for offloading stake at an enterprise valuation of about Rs 10,000 crore. Siddhartha was also looking to sell a majority stake in his real estate venture — Tanglin Developments — to private equity major Blackstone for around Rs 2,800 crore.“He was hopeful that he would get a good sum from the stake sale in the coffee chain business too,” said one of the bankers.“Public documents reveal significant assets are available with the Coffee Day group. Personal assets are not readily visible, but appear to be substantial as well,” said Vivek Mallya, a practising chartered accountant. “Delay in Mindtree transactions due to various factors seems to have caused opportunity losses. His intentions to dispose of personal assets to reduce group obligations may not be in doubt,” he added.A KKR spokesperson said: “We believe in VG Siddhartha and had invested in the company about nine years ago. We sold approximately 4.25% (of our total holding of approximately 10.3% in the company) in February 2018, on the stock exchange and have not sold any shares before or after.”A spokesperson for Standard Chartered Private Equity said, “We backed VG Siddhartha in early 2010 and have had a great relationship with him throughout. We sold approximately 1% equity on the exchange in April 2018. Since then, we haven’t sold anything and currently own about 5.7% in CDEL.”(With inputs from Saloni Shukla, Rajesh Mascarenhas and Reghu Balakrishnan in Mumbai; Ayan Pramanik and Smita Balram in Bengaluru)