Lakshmi Mittal

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal (Hindi: [ˈləkʃmi nɪˈʋaːs ˈmɪtːəl] (listen); born 15 June 1950) is an Indian steel magnate,[7] based in the United Kingdom. He is the chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaking company.[8] Mittal owns 38% of ArcelorMittal and holds a 20% stake in Queens Park Rangers F.C..[9]

Lakshmi Mittal
Mittal in 2013
Born (1950-06-15) 15 June 1950[1][2]
Sadulpur, Rajasthan, India
NationalityIndian
Alma materUniversity of Calcutta, (B.Com.)[1]
OccupationChairman & CEO of
Arcelor Mittal
Owner of Karrick Limited[3]
Co-owner of
Queens Park Rangers F.C.
Known forSteel magnate
King of Steel[4]
Net worthUS$18 billion (September 2020)[5]
Board member ofGoldman Sachs
Spouse(s)Usha Mittal
ChildrenVanisha Mittal
Aditya Mittal
AwardsPadma Vibhushan (2008)[6]

In 2005, Forbes ranked Mittal as the third-richest person in the world, making him the first Indian citizen to be ranked in the top ten in the publication's annual list of the world's richest people.[10][11] In 2007, Mittal was considered to be the richest Asian person in Europe.[12][13] He was ranked the sixth-richest person in the world by Forbes in 2011, but dropped to 82nd place in March 2015.[14] He is also the "57th-most powerful person" of the 72 individuals named in Forbes' "Most Powerful People" list for 2015.[15] His daughter Vanisha Mittal's wedding was the second-most expensive in recorded history.[16]

Mittal has been a member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs since 2008.[17] He sits on the World Steel Association's executive committee,[18] and is a member of the Global CEO Council of the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries,[18] the Foreign Investment Council in Kazakhstan,[18] the World Economic Forum's International Business Council,[18] and the European Round Table of Industrialists.[18] He is also a member of the board of trustees of the Cleveland Clinic.[18]

In 2005, The Sunday Times named him "Business Person of 2006", the Financial Times named him "Person of the Year", and Time magazine named him "International Newsmaker of the Year 2006".[18] In 2007, Time magazine included him in their "Time 100" list.[19]

In 2019, Forbes named him in the list of India's Richest 2019.[20]

Early life and career

Mittal was born in a Marwadi Family. He studied at Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya, Calcutta from 1957 to 1964.[21] He graduated from St. Xavier's College, affiliated to the University of Calcutta, with a B.Com degree in the first class. His father, Mohanlal Mittal, ran a steel business, Nippon Denro Ispat.[22]

In 1976, due to the curb of steel production by the Indian government, the 26-year-old Mittal opened his first steel factory PT Ispat Indo in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia.[23][24] In 1989 Mittal purchased the state-owned steel works in Trinidad and Tobago, which were operating at an enormous loss. He turned them into profitable ventures in a year.[25]

Until the 1990s, the family's main assets in India were a cold-rolling mill for sheet steels in Nagpur and an alloy steels plant near Pune. Today, the family business, including a large integrated steel plant near Mumbai, is run by his younger brothers Pramod Mittal and Vinod Mittal, but Lakshmi has no connection with it.[26]

Social work

Sports

After witnessing India win only one medal, bronze, in the 2000 Summer Olympics, and one medal, silver, at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Mittal decided to set up the Mittal Champions Trust with $9 million to support ten Indian athletes with world-beating potential.[27] In 2008, Mittal awarded Abhinav Bindra with Rs. 1.5 Crore (Rs. 15 million), for getting India its first individual Olympic gold medal in shooting. ArcelorMittal also provided steel for the construction of the ArcelorMittal Orbit for the 2012 Summer Olympics.[28]

For Comic Relief he matched the money raised (~£1 million) on the celebrity special BBC programme, The Apprentice.

Education

In 2003, the Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, Usha Mittal Foundation and the Government of Rajasthan partnered together to establish a university, the LNM Institute of Information Technology (LNMIIT) in Jaipur as an autonomous non-profit organisation.[29]

In 2009, the Foundation along with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan founded the Usha Lakshmi Mittal Institute of Management in New Delhi.

SNDT Women's University renamed the Institute of Technology for Women (ITW) as Usha Mittal Institute of Technology after a large donation from the Lakshmi Niwas Mittal Foundation.

He completed his Primary and Secondary school from Nopany High formerly known as Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya.

Medical

In 2008, the Mittals made a donation of £15 million to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, the largest private contribution the hospital had ever received. The donation was used to help fund their new facility, the Mittal Children's Medical Centre.[30]

COVID-19 pandemic

He made a donation of ₹100 crores to PM cares fund during the COVID-19 pandemic in India in 2020.[31]

Criticism and allegations

PHS

Mittal successfully employed Marek Dochnal's consultancy to influence Polish officials in the privatisation of PHS steel group, which was Poland's largest. Dochnal was later arrested for bribing Polish officials on behalf of Russian agents in a separate affair.[32]

In 2007, the Polish government said it wanted to renegotiate the 2004 sale to ArcelorMittal.[33]

Slave-labour allegations and questionable safety records

Employees of Mittal have accused him of allowing "slave labour" conditions after multiple fatalities in his mines.[34] During December 2004, twenty-three miners died in explosions in his mines in Kazakhstan caused by faulty gas detectors.[35]

The Mittal Affair: "Cash for Influence"

In 2002, Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price obtained a letter written by Tony Blair to the Romanian Government in support of Mittal's LNM steel company, which was in the process of bidding to buy Romania's state-owned steel industry.[36][37][38] This revelation caused controversy, because Mittal had given £125,000 to the British Labour Party the previous year. Although Blair defended his letter as simply "celebrating the success" of a British company, he was criticised because LNM was registered in the Dutch Antilles and employed less than 1% of its workforce in the UK.[38] LNM was a "major global competitor of Britain's own struggling steel industry".[39]

Blair's letter hinted that the privatisation of the firm and sale to Mittal might help smooth the way for Romania's entry into the European Union.[36] It also had a passage, removed just prior to Blair's signing of it, describing Mittal as "a friend".[38]

Queens Park Rangers

Mittal had emerged as a leading contender to buy and sell Barclays Premiership clubs Wigan and Everton. However, on 20 December 2007, it was announced that the Mittal family had purchased a 20 per cent shareholding in Queens Park Rangers football club joining Flavio Briatore and Mittal's friend Bernie Ecclestone.[40] As part of the investment Mittal's son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, took a place on the board of directors. The combined investment in the struggling club sparked suggestions that Mittal might be looking to join the growing ranks of wealthy individuals investing heavily in English football and emulating similar benefactors such as Roman Abramovich.[41]

On 19 February 2010, Briatore resigned as QPR chairman, and sold further shares in the club to Ecclestone, making Ecclestone the single largest shareholder.[42]

Environmental damage

Mittal purchased the Irish Steel plant based in Cork, Ireland, from the government for a nominal fee of £1 million. Three years later, in 2001, it was closed, leaving 400 people redundant. Subsequent environmental issues at the site have been a cause for criticism. The government tried to sue in the High Court to have him pay for the clean-up of Cork Harbour but failed. The clean up was expected to cost €70 million.[43]

Personal life
Mittal's residence, 18–19, Kensington Palace Gardens, London.

Mittal was born on 15 June 1950 in Rajasthani marwari family in Sadulpur, Rajasthan. He is married to Usha Mittal. They have a son Aditya Mittal and a daughter Vanisha Mittal.

Lakshmi Mittal has two brothers, Pramod Mittal and Vinod Mittal, and a sister, Seema Lohia, who married Indonesian businessman, Sri Prakash Lohia.[1][2] His residence at 18–19 Kensington Palace Gardens—which was purchased from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for £67 million (US$128 million)—made it the world's most expensive house at the time.[44] The house is decorated with marble taken from the same quarry that supplied the Taj Mahal.[45] The extravagant show of wealth has been referred to as the "Taj Mittal".[46] It has 12 bedrooms, an indoor pool, Turkish baths and parking for 20 cars.[47] He is a lacto-vegetarian.[48]

Mittal bought No. 9A Palace Greens, Kensington Gardens, formerly the Philippines Embassy, for £70 million in 2008 for his daughter Vanisha Mittal who is married to Amit Bhatia, a businessman and philanthropist. Mittal threw a lavish "vegetarian reception" for Vanisha in the Palace of Versailles, France.[48]

In 2005, he also bought a colonial bungalow for $30 million at No. 22, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Road, New Delhi, one of the most exclusive streets in India, occupied by embassies and billionaires, and rebuilt it as a house.[49]

In December 2013, Mittal's niece Shrishti Mittal got married in a three-day celebration that is said to have brought Barcelona to a standstill and cost up to £50 million. Some 200 butlers, cooks and secretaries were reportedly flown into Spain from India and Thailand while the 500 guests were made to sign confidentiality agreements.[50]

Personal wealth

According to the Sunday Times Rich List 2016, Mittal and his family had an estimated personal net worth of GB£7.12 billion,[51] a decrease of $2.08 billion on the previous year.[52] Meanwhile, in 2016 Forbes magazine's annual billionaires list assessed estimated Mittal's wealth in 2016 at as the 135th-wealthiest billionaire with a net worth of US$8.4 billion.[53] Mittal's net worth peaked in 2008, assessed by The Sunday Times at £27.70 billion,[54] and by Forbes at US$45.0 billion, and rated as the fourth-wealthiest individual in the world.[55]

Wealth rankings
Legend
Icon Description
Has not changed from the previous year's list
Has increased from the previous year's list
Has decreased from the previous year's list
Year The Sunday Times
Rich List		 Forbes
The World's Billionaires
Rank Net worth
(GB£) bn		 Rank Net worth
(US$) bn
2005 3 $25.00
2006 1 £14.88 5 $23.50
2007[56] 1 £19.25 5 $32.00
2008[54][55] 1 £27.70 4 $45.00
2009[57][58] 1 £10.80 8 $19.30
2010[59][60][61] 1 £22.45 5 $28.70
2011[62][63] 1 £17.50 6 $31.10
2012[64] 1 £12.70 21 $20.70
2013[65][66][67] 4 £10.00 41 $16.50
2014[68][69] 3 £10.25 52 $13.70
2015[14][70][71] 7 £9.20 82 $13.50
2016[51][53] 11 £7.12 135 $8.40
2020[72][73] 19 £6.78 196 $9.70

Awards and honours
Year of Award or HonourName of Award or HonourAwarding Organisation
2008 Padma Vibhushan Government of India
2008 Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award Forbes
2007 Fellowship King's College London
2007 Bessemer Gold Medal IOM3
2004 European Businessman of the Year Forbes
2004 Entrepreneur of the Year The Wall Street Journal
2004 8th honorary Willy Korf Steel Vision Award American Metal Market and World Steel Dynamics
1996 Steel Maker of the Year New Steel


  • Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey – Cold Steel (Little, Brown, 2008).
  • Navalpreet Rangi – Documentary Film (The Man with a Mission, 2010).

References
  1. "Cha". Archived from the original on 27 December 2010. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  2. "Lakshmi Mittal Chairman and CEO of Mittal Steel". webindia123.com. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  3. "Lakshmi Mittal, Owner of Karrick Limited". Bloomberg BusinessWeek. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  4. Reed, Stanley; Biesheuvel, Thomas (10 November 2011). "Lakshmi Mittal, the King of Steel, Trips Up". Businessweek. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  5. "Lakshmi Mittal – Forbes". Forbes.
  6. "LN Mittal, Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy get Padma Vibhushan". The Times of India. 26 January 2008. Retrieved 26 January 2008.
  7. Srikar Muthyala (29 September 2015). "The List of Great Entrepreneurs of India in 2015". MyBTechLife. Archived from the original on 14 January 2016.
  8. "Lakshmi Mittal". Forbes. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  9. "Lakshmi Mittal buys 20 per cent stake in Queens Park Rangers - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  10. "Archive News". The Hindu.
  11. "Tory pressure over Mittal row". BBC News. London: BBC. 12 February 2002. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  12. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 10 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  13. "Mittal richest in Europe and UK; fifth in the world". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 19 May 2011.
  14. "#82 Lakshmi Mittal". The World's Billionaires. Forbes. 21 March 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  15. "The World's Most Powerful People". Forbes. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  16. Lubin, Gus (28 April 2011). "The 12 Most Expensive Weddings in History". Business Insider. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  17. "Board of Directors – Lakshmi N. Mittal". Goldman Sachs. Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  18. "Board of directors – Lakshmi N Mittal". ArcelorMittal. Retrieved 5 July 2017.
  19. "The 2007 Time 100". Time.
  20. Karmali, Naazneen. "India's Richest 2019: Fortune Favors A Few As Growth Slows". Forbes. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
  21. "India's Top Billionaires & Schools They Attended". Marketing Mind. 21 April 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  22. "Lakshmi Mittal Biography: Education, Net Worth and His Personal Life". financeninvestments.com. 3 September 2010. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  23. "Nur Saidah: Surabaya's steel woman in a tough industry". The Jakarta Post. 3 April 2006. Archived from the original on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  24. Zia Permata Buana (1 July 2007). Kisah sukses Lakshmi Mittal, dari Surabaya ke London: Rahasia Bisnis Orang Asia Terkaya di Dunia (in Indonesian). Hikmah. ISBN 978-979-1140-98-0. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  25. "Interesting facts about Lakshmi Mittal that will inspire you". Business Insider. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  26. Saunders, Andrew (1 January 2013). "From the Caribbean to global steel giant: The rise of ArcelorMittal". Management Today. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  27. "Mittal's Olympic dream is worth Rs 40 crore". Daily News and Analysis. 9 November 2005. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  28. "About the ArcelorMittal Orbit". Retrieved 1 November 2016.
  29. "Welcome to LNMIIT". www.lnmiit.ac.in.
  30. "Mittals' £15m gift to Great Ormond Street is a record". Evening Standard. 9 April 2008.
  31. "Coronavirus crisis: Lakshmi Mittal announces Rs 100 cr to PM CARES Fund". www.businesstoday.in.
  32. "How tycoon went from polo lawns to Polish jail". The Times. 27 November 2004.
  33. "Poland wants to renegotiate terms of PHS sale to Arcelor Mittal". Abcmoney.co.uk. 16 March 2007. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  34. Franchetti, Mark; Winnett, Robert (10 June 2007). "UK's richest man in slave labour row". The Times. London.
  35. "Methane Blast Kills at Least 23 at ArcelorMittal Coal Mine in Kazakhstan". IndustriALL. 14 January 2008. Retrieved 13 November 2020.
  36. "Plaid reveals Labour steel cash link". BBC News. London: BBC. 11 February 2002. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  37. Verdin, Mike (14 February 2002). "Lakshmi Mittal, steel mill millionaire". BBC News. London: BBC. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  38. "Q&A: 'Garbagegate'". BBC News. London: BBC. 14 February 2002. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  39. "Steel firm condemns 'Mittal aid'". BBC News. London: BBC. 18 February 2002. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  40. "QPR secure huge investment boost". BBC. London. 20 December 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2007.
  41. Garside, Kevin (21 December 2007). "Lakshmi Mittal pushes QPR up the rich list". The Daily Telegraph.
  42. "Briatore resigns as QPR chairman". Reuters. 19 February 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
  43. O'Connor, Lisa (8 August 2004). "Steel Plant Mess Bill Has Doubled". Sunday Mirror. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  44. "$128M Spend for London House". NBC News. 12 April 2004.
  45. Langley, William (21 January 2007). "Profile: Lakshmi Mittal". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  46. Turnbull, James (13 July 2007). "Takeover Week: Billionaires Row". Google Sightseeing. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  47. "Photo Gallery: Homes of the Billionaires". Forbes. 22 May 2002. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  48. "On billionaire row, it's simple, veggie fare". The Times of India. 28 September 2008. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
  49. "Lakshmi Mittal builds real Utopia". The Times of India. 18 August 2005.
  50. Gadher, Dipesh; Worden, Tom (15 December 2013). "Just a little £50m family wedding, Mittal-style". The Sunday Times. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  51. Beresford, Philip; Watts, Robert, eds. (24 April 2016). "Rich List". thesundaytimes.co.uk. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  52. Beresford, Philip, ed. (April 2015). "2015 Rich List". thesundaytimes.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2015.
  53. "#135 Lakshmi Mittal". Forbes. February 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  54. Beresford, Philip, ed. (27 April 2008). "Rich List reveals wealthy reap profits under Labour". The Sunday Times.
  55. "#4 Lakshmi Mittal". Forbes. 5 March 2008. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  56. "#5 Lakshmi Mittal". Forbes. 8 March 2007. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  57. Beresford, Philip, ed. (26 April 2009). "Sunday Times Rich List: Bonfire of the billionaires wipes out £155bn fortune". The Sunday Times.
  58. "#8 Lakshmi Mittal". Forbes. 11 March 2009. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  59. "The Sunday Times Rich List 2010: Rising from the rubble". The Sunday Times. 25 April 2010.
  60. Beresford, Philip, ed. (25 April 2010). "2010 Rich List". thesundaytimes.co.uk.
  61. "#5 Lakshmi Mittal". Forbes. 10 March 2010. Retrieved 9 June 2015.
  62. Beresford, Philip, ed. (8 May 2011). "2011 Sunday Times Rich List". The Sunday Times. United Kingdom. Retrieved 8 May 2011.
  63. "Fifty Indians on Forbes' global billionaire club". NRI internet. Washington, D.C. 10 March 2011. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  64. Beresford, Philip, ed. (29 April 2012). "2014 Rich List". thesundaytimes.co.uk.
  65. Beresford, Philip, ed. (21 April 2013). "2013 Rich List". thesundaytimes.co.uk.
  66. "Top 10 Richest People in India: Mukesh Ambani, Lakshmi Mittal, Dilip Shanghvi". International Business Times. 29 October 2013. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
  67. Willett, Megan (2013). "Heir style: the rich kids who have it all". Executive Style. Australia. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  68. Beresford, Philip, ed. (18 May 2014). "2014 Rich List". thesundaytimes.co.uk.
  69. Stempel, Jonathan (4 March 2014). "Bill Gates tops Forbes billionaire list, Mukesh Ambani richest Indian". Reuters. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  70. "Richest Double wealth". The Guardian. United Kingdom. 26 April 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  71. Flannery, Russell (9 March 2015). "2015 Forbes Billionaires: Full List Of Asia's 562 Richest People". Forbes. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  72. The Rich List 2020 Times Newspapers Limited, 2020
  73. #196 Lakshmi Mittal Forbes, 8 September 2020
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.