Lakshmi Mittal – Steel

Lakshmi Nivas Mittal (लक्ष्मी निवास मित्तल) (born June 15, 1950) is a London-based Indian billionaire industrialist, born in Sadulpur, in Churu district of Rajasthan, India, and residing in Kensington, London. He was listed in the Forbes List of Billionaires (2006) as the the richest Indian and the fifth richest man in the world with an estimated fortune of $25.0 billion and, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2006, is the richest in the United Kingdom, with a net worth of £14.8 billion. The Financial Times named Mittal its 2006 Person of the Year. In 2005, he was the third richest man in the world according to Forbes List of billionaires (2005).

Contents

1 Early History

2 Today

3 Personal wealth

4 References

5 See also

6 External links

Early History

He spent his first years in Sadulpur, living with his extended family on bare concrete floors and rope beds in a house built by his grandfather. His family, from the Marwari Aggarwal caste, was from humble roots; his grandfather worked for the Tarachand Ghanshyamdas Poddar firm, one of the leading Marwari industrial firms of pre-independence India. They eventually moved to Kolkata where his father, Mohan, became a partner in a steel company and made a fortune. Lakshmi was a keen student and graduated at the top of his class in high school (Hindi medium). He graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta (gaining admission after much persistence, as the college wouldn't admit him at first since he had graduated from a Hindi medium school) with a commerce degree in 1969. His classmates knew him as a sharp student who was good with numbers. Here again, he graduated at the top of his class.

In 1994, due to differences with his father and brothers, he branched out on his own, taking over the international operations of the Mittal steel business, which was already owned by the family.

Today

Today he is chairman and CEO of Arcelor Mittal which is the world's largest producer of low and mid-grade steels, with assets in Romania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, South Africa, Poland, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Kazakhstan scandal dubbed Mittalgate with British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Many suspected that a donation by Mittal to the British Labour Party had led to Blair's intervention (a letter to the Romanian Prime Minister) in a business deal favouring Mittal. On July 13, 2005 it was announced that he had donated £2 million to the Labour Party, and on January 16, 2007 it was announced that he had donated a further £2 million.

Personal wealth

In March 2006, he was reported the fifth wealthiest person in the world by Forbes Magazine (up from 63rd richest in 2004). The Mittal family owns 45% of Arcelor Mittal, the world's largest steel company.[1]

His residence at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens was bought from Formula One car racing boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for £57.1 million ($105.7 million), the highest price ever paid for a house.[2] Formerly, this house was the residence of Paul Reuter, the founder of the Reuters news service.[3]

Mittal has two children. He paid over £30 million/$65 million to host his daughter Vanisha's wedding celebration in Vaux le Vicomte on 22 June 2004 and an engagement ceremony at the Palace of Versailles on 20 June 2004, the most expensive wedding ever recorded in history. His son Aditya is the CFO of Arcelor Mittal.

References

^ "Mittal announces bid for rival Arcelor", The Guardian, January 27, 2006.

^ The sale was widely misreported at £70 million, "$128M Spend for London House", MSNBC, April 12, 2004. before accurate figures were available from HM Land Registry."Super rich", The Guardian, April 17, 2006.

^ "Super rich", The Guardian, April 17, 2006.

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