A six-year old dispute in the Goa-based Salgaocar family has been resolved amicably, with the business being divided between siblings Shivanand and Dattaraj Salgaocar.

According to sources close to the group, Shivanand gets to keep the family’s iron ore mining business along with the healthcare unit, while Dattaraj gets control over the real estate, education and hospitality ventures.

The VM Salgaocar Group, one of Goa’s top business families, was founded by the late Vasudev Salgaocar in the 1950s. He also foundedthe Salgaocar Football Club in 1956.

The group made it big through mining operations but then ventured into other areas, including real estate, hospitality and healthcare.

Vasudev has a third son, Anil Salgaocar, who moved to Singapore, where he died in 2016. Anil’s name was mentioned in the Panama papers, which had revealed that law firm Mossack Fonseca helped more than 500 Indians set up offshore companies in tax havens across the world.

Shivanand and Dattaraj were locked in a battle over the separation of the group’s assets since 2013. Shivanand had filed a suit in the Bombay High Court against Dattaraj, alleging the latter had reneged on a family agreement signed in 2009. The agreement related to how the various businesses would be divided.

Incidentally, Dattaraj is married to Dipti, the sister of the Ambani brothers.

“The two sides have reached an amicable settlement in order to enhance value,” said a source close to the family.

The VM Salgaocar Group website had this message pasted on top: “Please bear with us as we are in the process of updating our website in view of our corporate restructuring.”

Another source said that the Ambani brothers, Anil and Mukesh, may have helped in persuading the warring Salgaocar brothers to bury the hatchet.

The Ambani brothers themselves have gone through the process of battling each other, dividing the Reliance businesses before reconciling.

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