Graduated from business school on Calcutta in 1969, Lakshmi Mitall learned his job in the company Ispat Industries: a steel factory which his father is partner. When in 19876, his family created its own steel factories, Lakshmi was in charge of the international development.
Anxious to prove his qualities as a manger to his father, he founded his own company and bought public companies weakened or in bankrupt. In the 1990s, “the iron man of Calcutta” had the opportunity to show his knowledge by saving steel industries in Trinidad and Tobago. Thereafter, he bought a network of steel producers, coming from former communist countries: Kazakhstan, Romania and Ukraine.
In the 1990s, he explores the world in order to buy low-value businesses and develop it. Obsessed with the rationalizing of his expenditures, Mittal is a manager without concessions whose the aim is reducing costs.
Thanks to the merger between Mittal and the American group ISG (International Steel Group) in October 2004, Mittal Steel became the first producer of steel in the world. On January 27, 2006 Mittal mounted hostile take-over of Arcelro. The merger was concluded and Lakshmi Mittal became CEO of Arcelor-Mittal.
In recent years, Lakshmi Mittal has conducted more than twenty takeovers, principally ailing companies. According to Forbes, in 2011, his fortune was estimated at $ 45 billion.
Anecdotes
Lakshmi has a sumptuous residence in Kensington, which has been decorated with marble from the same quarries than the Taj Mahal. The British have called it “the Taj Mittal”.
In 2004, he offered his daughter’s wedding. The ceremony took place in France, in Vaux-le-Vicompte and in Versailles. It was one of the most expensive weddings (55 million euros).
Citations
"We are not in the business of iron ore. Whatever captive iron ore sources we have, we use it to make steel."
Bibliographie
Cold Steel : Lakshmi Mittal and the Multi-billion-dollar Battle for a Global Empire by Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey. Editions Abacus (2009
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