Calcutta, April 18 :    Calcutta, April 18:  The B.M Khaitan group and the Magors of London are breaking up their 40-year-old partnership under which they managed their sprawl of tea businesses from Darjeeling to Assam. The two partners will unscramble their holdings in their various tea companies: the Magors who hold around 70 per cent in George Williamson will control the tea estates of the company which are largely spread across Assam, while the Khaitans will control the 40 tea estates belonging to Eveready and Bishnauth Tea. The two promoters are parting ways after a bitter wrangle outside the public gaze over the management of Williamson Magor, its subsidiaries and associate companies. Relations soured even further after talks between the two families over the Magors' takeover of a few gardens belonging to Eveready Industries and Bishnauth Tea fell through last November. None of the Khaitans, however, were available for comment. While the group chairman B.M. Khaitan and Eveready's managing director Deepak Khaitan were 'out of station', Aditya Khaitan could not be contacted despite several attempts. A senior company official said, 'We have heard of it but I am not in a position to comment. I am neither a Khaitan nor a Magor man. All I can say is that there could be some problems between the two.' The Magors hold over 26 per cent in Williamson Magor while the Khaitans have over 50 per cent. The Khaitans also hold 10 per cent in George Williamson. Williamson Magor's principal activities range from trading and investments to real estate and tea warehousing. The problems for the cash-strapped Khaitans started with the acquisition of Eveready Industries with an investment of Rs 290 crore in November 1994 from the ill-starred US multinational Union Carbide. In 1995, McLeod Russel, through which Khaitans had acquired Eveready, made a rights cum public issue to mop up Rs 302.6 crore in order to retire the high-cost debt, raised from the financial institutions. The issue, one of the largest from this region, failed to evoke the expected response from the investors resulting in a heavy debt burden on the company. As a result, Eveready started becoming sick and incurred a heavy interest burden. In order to save the situation, the Khaitans planned last year to bring the tea business under one umbrella while they started looking for a buyer for the battery business of Eveready. The combined operation will have a business well over Rs 500 crore from 40 tea estates. The decision to sell off at least nine tea companies was also taken to raise fund in order to avoid a debt trap. EIL also weighed a proposal to sell its real estate in Delhi and Bhopal in order to raise around Rs 60 crore. The Khaitans, who hold around 44 per cent in EIL and 50 per cent in Bishnauth Tea, are planning to move out of the battery and lighting business which they had entered with great fanfare five years back.