Aditya Khaitan, a promoter of Williamson Magor Group, has stepped down from the board of Kilburn Engineering Ltd, marking the completion of a split in operational control within the family.

Khaitan’s resignation as non-executive and non-independent director from Kilburn comes a day after Amritanshu Khaitan, Aditya’s nephew, resigned from the board of McLeod Russel India Ltd, a WM Group company.

In his letter to the board, Khaitan said he resigned from Kilburn with immediate effect as he wished to devote greater time to his other endeavours. “My best wishes remain in the company and I hope it continues to growth from strength to strength,” he wrote.

With the departure of Aditya, younger son of group founder Brij Mohan Khaitan, from Kilburn in which Amritanshu has been focusing on after the Khaitan family had to let go of zinc-carbon battery maker Eveready to the Burman family, promoter of Dabur, in 2021.

Aditya Khaitan is the chairman of managing director of McLeod Russel in an executive role. Amritanshu, who joined McLeod board after the untimely death of his father Deepak Khaitan in 2015, was a non-executive director of the tea planter.

Industry sources said the operational division could herald a family settlement within the promoter group inthe future. As of now, both Aditya and Amritanshu remained promoter shareholders both in the bulk tea producer and manufacturer of process equipment. However, they will now independently pursue future course of business for both McLeod and Kilburn, sources added.

While Kilburn has performed well over the last four years, growing both topline and bottomline, McLeod remains a work in progress with its legacy debt problems. The bulk tea producer is learnt to be in advanced talk with public sector NARCL to restructure outstanding debt. A proposal made by the company is under consideration of the board of the public sector asset reconstruction company.