Is the longest running family dispute in India Inc over? Fourteen years after the Modis split, a family member says the complex cross-holdings in each other's companies are set to be disentangled.

"All the issues will be resolved by the end of this month. We will start 2004 on a new slate," Bhupendra Kumar Modi told Business Standard.

Other Modis are not so sure -- two of them denied such an agreement had been reached. S K Modi called it wishful thinking, while M K Modi said he was not aware of any such development.

"It will be good if it happens. The talks may be going on between the other groups, but not with me," M K Modi said referring to his cousins, the sons of late Rai Bahadur Gujar Mal Modi.

Over the years, a complex cross-holding structure has evolved in the Modi group.

When the family business was split in 1989 between the sons of Rai Bahadur Gujar Mal Modi and Kedar Nath Modi, there were four companies -- Modi Spinning, Modi Industries, Modipon and Modi Rubber -- which held shares in other Modi enterprises.

But the cross-holdings could not be resolved because each claimed a different valuation.

Now, B K Modi claims that the logjam has been cleared. "The family has agreed to disentangle the cross-holdings. It has already been done in two companies, Modi Spinning and Modi Rubber. Those who held shares in these companies have been paid to exit. The cross-holdings in the other two companies, Modi Industries and Modipon, will be resolved later this month," he said, adding, "We have informed the government that we can resolve our issues. The government has asked us to disentangle the cross-holdings in all four companies and then get back to it."

Banks have been unable to set responsibilities for recovering their dues from these companies because of the crossholdings.

As a result, they have adopted the "group approach" towards Modi companies and frozen their working capital limits. But B K Modi thinks all this will soon be history. "This history has to end, a new era has to begin," he said.