A Father-Son Feud Split 100-Yr-Old Indian Business Empire!

For much of his life, M.A.M. Ramaswamy—former chairman of the $1.8 billion Chettinad group—displayed an uncanny ability to pick the winning horse. Such was his success rate that the 83-year-old patriarch of the Tamil Nadu-based business group—one of the biggest and oldest in south India—was even listed in the Guinness World Records for having won more than 500 classic horse races.

But now, in his old age, the wheelchair-bound widower, is perhaps regretting the biggest bet he ever placed in his life: The choice of his heir.