Lakshmi Mittal
Personal Profile
Lakshmi Mittal
Birth Name:
Lakshmi Niwas MittalCommon Name:
Lakshmi MittalDate of Birth:
June 15, 1950Zodiac Sign:
GeminiPlace of Birth:
Sadulpur, Rajasthan, IndiaSex:
MaleHair Color:
Black Nationality:
IndianReligion:
HinduismEducation:
St. Xavier's College, Calcutta Address:
7th Floor, Berkeley Square House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6DA, England
Family
Lakshmi Mittal
Father:
Mohan MittalSpouse:
Usha MittalSon:
Aditya MittalDaughter:
Vanisha Mittal
Career
Lakshmi Mittal
Awards
Lakshmi Mittal
2008: Padma Vibhushan
2007: Bessemer Gold Medal 2006: Person of the Year - Financial Times
2004: European Businessman of the Year - Fortune Magazine
1998: Willy Korf Steel Vision Award - American Metal Market and PaineWeber’s World Steel Dynamics
1996: Steelmaker of the Year - New Steel
Trivia
Lakshmi Mittal
- His pay cut of 12 per cent reduced his basic salary to $1.49 million but his 2009 performance bonus added $2.1 million.
submitted by - New ID
- When he threatens to stop work on a project unless fiscal incentives are restored, as he did on the Rs 18,919-crore refinery in Punjab, governments listen.
submitted by - Nicky Status
- He has pledged $9 million to set up the Champion's Trust to support 10 Indian athletes with the potential to be world champions.
submitted by - Aksh Dhiman
- Despite the global meltdown and falling steel demand, his personal wealth is $19.3 billion, which he is investing in an array of acquisitions, from the British football club Queen's Park Rangers to a major stake in Australia's Macarthur Coal, to UK's Rab Capital, shares in Indiabulls and a 35 per cent stake in Uttam Galva Steel.
submitted by - Amitabh Dhiman
- Lakshmi Mittal purchased a property at 21 Curzon Street in Mayfair for his daughter's wedding and was kitted out at a cost of £8m by Candy and Candy. The 26,000 sq ft house has an attached mews house which contains a full size squash court and nightclub.
submitted by - Amit Rank
Quotes
Lakshmi Mittal
- It is true that we are interested in scale but there are very sound reasons for this. - Unknown
submitted by - Dr. Reddy Labs
- I am confident we will win, I am not even thinking beyond that. I am sure shareholders will make the right decision because they like this (consolidation) in the steel industry. - Unknown
submitted by - Chotu Dhiman
- The danger, though - and there have been signs of this recently - is that Europe begins to demonstrate a return to more nationalist sentiment. To my mind, that would be a great mistake. - Unknown
submitted by - Vaibhav Dhiman
- I have confidence that the government of Luxembourg will not make any decision that frustrates this transaction. - Unknown
submitted by - Amit Kher
- I am very confident that we will be able to convince all the stakeholders - the shareholders, the governments and the employees, that this is in their best interests. - Unknown
submitted by - Sanjeev Dhiman
Biography
Lakshmi Mittal
Last Updated: Saturday, January 30, 2010
World's largest steel maker and the third richest man in the world. Lakshmi Mittal has become something of a cult figure in the global steel industry. His company Mittal Steel is the largest steel maker in the world. After the recent merger between Mittal Steel and Arcelor which raged a big debate throughout the Europe, Lakshmi Mittal current controls 10% of the total steel production and the combined entity that has come into force post-merger is three times the size of its nearest competitors.
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born on June 15, 1950 at Sadulpur, in Churu district of Rajasthan, in a poor family. The extended family of 20 lived on bare concrete floors, slept on rope beds and cooked on an open fire in the brickyard in a house built by his grandfather. Laxmi Mittal belongs to Marwari Aggarwal caste and his grandfather worked for the Tarachand Ghanshyam Das firm, one of the leading Marwari industrial firms of pre-independence India.
The family later on moved to Kolkata where his father Mohan Mittal became a partner in a steel company. Lakshmi Mittal graduated from St. Xaviers in Kolkata with a commerce degree in 1969. Lakshmi Mittal began his career working in the family's steelmaking business in India and in 1976, Lakshmi Mittal founded Mittal Steel Company. Lakshmi Mittal split from his father and two younger brothers in 1994 and took the international arm, with interests in Indonesia and Trinidad and Tobago, while the rest of the family kept the domestic Indian business.
In the last few years Mittal Steel has made a number of acquisitions, buying up a network of steel producers in former communist countries including Kazakhstan, Romania and Ukraine, and pushing into the U.S. in 2004 with the $4.5 billion purchase of International Steel Group. Today, Mittal Steel is the only truly global steel producer in the world with operations on 14 countries, spanning 4 continents.
Lakshmi Mittal is also known for his opulence. In 2003, he acquired the Kensington mansion, said to be the world's most expensive home, from Formula One racing's Bernie Ecclestone for £70 million ($128 million). His daughter Vanisha's $50 million wedding bash is touted as the most expensive wedding of the 20th century. In March 2006, Lakshmi Mittal was listed as the third wealthiest person in the world after Bill Gates and Warren Buffet by Forbes Magazine.