Former Musgrave's director Michael Nason has settled a High Court action against the Cork-based group over the terms of his departure from its board and management in March 2004.

Central to the action was the price that Musgrave was willing to pay Mr Nason for the shares he held in the group when he resigned as managing director of its SuperValu-Centra unit to become chief executive of Arnotts, the department store. He left Arnotts last summer.

Mr Nason held 263,374 Musgrave group shares at the end of 2003 and he is believed to have reduced his holding by half when he left the company. Thus the legal action he initiated this year centred on the value of his remaining 131,687 shares. The price put on the shares under the recent settlement is not known.

But Companies Office records indicate that Musgrave shares were valued at €3.2725 each under the terms of a €818,125 allotment on August 26th to a British director of the company, Christopher Nicholas Martin. This transaction was notified to the Revenue Commissioners.

The allotment to Mr Martin implies a value of some €430,945 on the shares held by Mr Nason.However, he is believed to have been seeking significantly in excess of €3.2725 per share when he started his action.

The departure of senior executives has proved very expensive for the group.

The former head of its British unit, Eoin McGettigan, received €1.073 million in "compensation for loss of office" when he left earlier this year. It is believed that this payment was exclusive of consideration paid for the 437,272 Musgrave shares that Mr McGettigan held at the start of this year.

Neither Mr Nason nor his solicitor were available to receive inquiries.

Musgrave declined to comment on the settlement, which is subject to a confidentiality clause.

"Mr Michael Nason was a director of Musgrave group until he resigned in March 2004. We have not had any direct contact with him since. We wish him well in the future," it said.

A €55 million deficit in the group's defined-benefit pension scheme means that most of its 2,000 staff will have to make a contribution of 6 per cent of annual salary to the scheme. The scheme was fully funded by the company until 2002.