No Fraud Or Funds Siphoning In Deccan Chronicle: T. V. Reddy

In an interview with the Economic Times, Reddy clarified that there is no fraud or siphoning of funds from Deccan Chargers. Instead, it was plain old incompetence on Reddy’s part (“wrong strategy“, he called it) that pushed Deccan Chronicle Holdings into deep financial crises and near bankruptcy.

Reddy explained that the root cause of all problem was the Odyssey Book Store which had accumulated staggering debts. The e-books and high retail costs had “killed” the retail industry, he said.

The second problem was the accursed IPL cricket team Deccan Chargers which had milked the company dry of all liquidity.

Reddy clarified that the first thing he would do was to dump Deccan Chargers to whoever wanted to buy it. The million (billion?) dollar question is will he find a bigger fool to buy a cash guzzler like Deccan Chargers. In ordinary times, Vijay Mallya would have rushed forward but now he is himself in deep financial trouble with a bankrupt Kingfisher Airlines and a cash guzzler in his own IPL Cricket team Royal Challengers. Vijay Mallya will keep a low profile, at least for the moment.

Subrata Ray Sahara, who has a penchant for IPL cricket teams and for having stadiums named after him, is also lying low after the Supreme Court directed him to pay a whopping Rs. 17,400+ crores in 3 months.

So, he is also out of the reckoning for the moment. Who else would be interested in an IPL cricket team?

T. Venkattram Reddy’s formula for a bail-out is quite simple “I need a “friendly loan” of Rs. 400-500 crores to tide over the liquidity crises“, he said.

Wonder if Reddy will find any takers for this.

Reddy kept silent about his other cash guzzler Aviotech, the chartered flight service.

Meanwhile, Deccan Chronicle Holdings’ unfortunate shareholders, who saw their precious wealth being wiped out by T. Venkattram Reddy’s “wrong strategy” of splurging funds on cricket and aviation are not in a forgiving mood. Some of them were heard suggesting that Reddy should start raising funds by selling off his mansions, yachts and luxury cars like Porsche Cayenne, Rolls Royce Phantom, BMW, Land Rover, Lamborghini and Mercedes Benz and put those funds into the company to compensate for the “wrong strategy“.