The 104-year-old Goa based business conglomerate, The Chowgule Group, has split into two after a “civil” family settlement.
Padma V Chowgule, Chairperson and Managing Director of flagship company, Chowgule & Co, will acquire the mining, pellets, salt, ship-building and educational institutions of the Group, which has 14 business units.
Padma is the youngest of founder Vishwasrao Chowgule’s five children.
Meanwhile Padma’s brother Vijay will have control over the Group’s businesses that include the ship repair yard at Lavgan in Maharashtra, Angre Port in Maharashtra, automobile dealerships, constructions chemicals, port agency, warehousing, logistics, Kolhapur Oxygen, healthcare, explosives and ammunition.
In the Financial 2020, the Group had a turnover of around 2500 crore, which has been divided equally between the two groups.
A split had been imminent ever since Padma took over as CMD from Vijay a few years ago. Padma introduced new management strategies to rebuild the group and professional managers to make the group future-focussed with aggressive growth targets.
It also coincided with the new generation of the family looking to lead the company with a track record of turning around businesses and achieving consistent growth and profitability in recent years.
The younger generations includes Arjun Chowgule, Ashok Chowgule’s son, Eshaan Lazarus, Padma’s son and Aditya Chowgule, son of Yashwantrao Chowgule, Vishwarao Chowgule’s brother.
The younger generation will continue to support Padma, while Vijay is backed by Ramesh Chowgule, who is the son of Laxmanrao Chowgule, Vishwasrao’s brother.
The restructuring of the company into two groups allows a diversified vision and approach, bringing focus to growth and expansion.
The spokesperson for Padma Chowgule’s group said, “All the businesses will focus on future readiness, striking a balance between expansions in existing businesses and developing new lines of business. The cornerstone of this vision will be the existing experienced talent base, along with infusion of new skills. As the Chowgule Group continues on its journey to secure a leadership position in the industry, across all the areas that it operates in, it will continue to unlock value for all its stakeholders, as it has done in the past.”
