The Munjal settlement

It is one of the rare times in corporate history that we have seen an amicable split of a large family's massive business empire. The Hero Group's Munjals have carved up the family's business into four separate units – each headed by one of the founding Munjal brothers.

Under this arrangement, whoever is heading or running a certain company gets to maintain operational status quo.

All businesses have been valued and the cross holdings have been untangled to ensure everyone ends up with a similar value at the end.

So who ends up with what?

The late Dayanad Munjal's sons Vijay and Ashok run Hero Exports and Sunbeam respectively.

Satyanand Munjal has four sons each running a separate business unit and that includes the listed entities like components company Munjal Auto, Munjal Showa and Majestic Auto.

And then you have O P Munjal who along with his son runs Hero Cycles – the companies that started it all, as well as Hero Motors with its sub divisions.

Finally, the big daddy Hero Honda which comes under the Brijmohan Lall Munjal family and also includes Hero Corporate Services and Easy Bill.

But here comes the kicker. Any previous formal and informal pacts by family members and indeed their businesses to not compete with each other directly are now off.

This means Hero Motors is free to foray into bikes independently or with a new partner. Sunbeam Castings can get into engineering services and even financial services. So it offers a free hand for all companies to look for aggressive growth areas.

The days ahead will be interesting to watch as the growth potential for many of these companies now widens.