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Lakshmi Mittal

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Lakshmi Mittal
Born (1950-09-02) 2 September 1950 (age 74)
Sadulpur, Rajasthan, India
NationalityIndian
Alma materSt. Xavier's College, Calcutta (B.Com.)[1]
Occupation(s)Chairman & CEO of
ArcelorMittal
Owner of Karrick Limited[2]
Co-owner of
Queens Park Rangers F.C.
Known forKing of Steel,[3] Steel tycoon
Board member of
Goldman Sachs, EADS
SpouseUsha Mittal
ChildrenVanisha Mittal
Aditya Mittal
AwardsPadma Vibhushan (2008)[4]

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal pronunciationⓘ (Hindi: लक्ष्मी निवास मित्तल Lakṣmī Nivās Mittal; born 2 September 1950) is a British-based Indian steel magnate. He is the chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaking company. Mittal owns 41 percent of ArcelorMittal and holds a 34 percent stake in the Queens Park Rangers F.C. football team.

In 2007, Mittal was the richest man of Asian descent in the United Kingdom.[6] Despite being the eighth wealthiest man in Britain in 2002, he does not hold British citizenship.[7] He was ranked the sixth richest person in the world by Forbes in 2011, but dropped to 21st place in 2012, due to having lost $10.4 billion the previous year.[5] In spite of the drop, Forbes estimates that he still had a personal wealth of US$16 billion in October 2012.[5] He is also the 47th "most powerful person" of the 70 individuals named in Forbes' "Most Powerful People" list for 2012.[8] His daughter Vanisha Mittal's wedding was the second most expensive in recorded history.[9]

In 2008, his net worth peaked at US$ 69.1 billion, making him the third richest person in history.[10]

Mittal has been a member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs since 2008,[11] and is also member of the board of directors of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company.[12] He sits on the World Steel Association's executive committee,[13] and is a member of the Indian Prime Minister’s Global Advisory Council,[13] the Foreign Investment Council in Kazakhstan,[13] the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council,[13] and the Presidential International Advisory Board of Mozambique.[13] He also sits on the advisory board of Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in the United States[13] and is a member of the board of trustees of the Cleveland Clinic.[13]

In 2006 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".[13] In 2007, Time magazine included him in their "100 most influential persons in the world".[14]

Early life and career

Lakshmi Narayan Mittal alias Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born into an Indian business family in Rajgarh tehsil (also known as Sadulpur) of Churu district in Rajasthan, India. His family moved from (Rajgarh) Sadulpur, Rajasthan to Calcutta in West Bengal. Mittal has two siblings—Pramod Mittal and Vinod Mittal.He studied at Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya from 1957 to 1964. He graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta, with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in business and accounting. His father, Mohan Lal Mittal, ran a steel business, Nippon Denro Ispat.[15] 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 Pramod and Vinod, but Lakshmi has no connection with it.[16]

Philanthropy

Mittal with then-president of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 2006

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 Mittal Champions Trust with $9 million to support 10 Indian athletes with world-beating potential.[17] 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. Arcelor Mittal Also financed the construction of ArcelorMittal Orbit for 2012 Summer Olympics.

For Comic Relief 2008 ', he matched the money raised (~£1 million) on the celebrity special BBC programme, The Apprentice.

Education

In 2003, the Lakshmi Niwas Mittal and 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 organization.

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.

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.

Criticism and allegations

PHS

Mittal successfully employed Marek Dochnal's consultancy to influence Polish officials in the privatization 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.[18]

In 2007, the Polish government said it wanted to renegotiate the 2004 sale to Arcelor Mittal.[19]

Slave-labour allegations and questionable safety records

Employees of Mittal have accused him of "slave labour" conditions after multiple fatalities in his mines.[20] During December 2004, twenty-three miners died in explosions in his mines in Kazakhstan caused by faulty gas detectors.

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.[21][22][23] 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.[24] LNM was a "major global competitor of Britain's own struggling steel industry".[25]

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.[21] It also had a passage, removed just prior to Blair's signing of it, describing Mittal as "a friend".[24]

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 percent shareholding in Queens Park Rangers football club joining Flavio Briatore and Mittal's friend Bernie Ecclestone.[26] 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.[27]

On 19 February 2010, Briatore resigned as QPR chairman, and sold further shares in the club to Ecclestone, making Ecclestone the single largest shareholder.[28]

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.[29]

Personal life

His residence at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens—which was purchased from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in 2004 for £57 million (US$128 million)—made it the world's most expensive house at the time.[30] The house is decorated with marble taken from the same quarry that supplied the Taj Mahal. The extravagant show of wealth has been referred to as the "Taj Mittal".[31] It has 12 bedrooms, an indoor pool, Turkish baths and parking for 20 cars.[32] He is a vegetarian.[33]

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. Being a vegetarian, Mittal threw a lavish "vegetarian reception" for Vanisha in the Palace of Versailles, France.[33]

Mittal owns three prime properties collectively worth £500 million on "Billionaire's Row" at Kensington Palace Gardens.[34]

In 2005 he also bought a colonial bungalow for $30 million at No. 22, Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi, India, the most exclusive street in the city, occupied by embassies and millionaires, and rebuilt it as a house.[35]

Awards and honours

Year of Award or Honour Name of Award or Honour Awarding Organization
2010 "Dostyk" 1 Republic of Kazakhstan.
2008 Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award Forbes
2008 Padma Vibhushan Government of India
2007 Grand Cross of Civil Merit Government of Spain
2007 Dwight D. Eisenhower Global Leadership Award[36] Business Council for International Understanding[37]
2007 Fellowship King's College London
2004 European Businessman of the Year Forbes
2004 Entrepreneur of the Year 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

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ^ "Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO". Arcelormittal.com. 15 June 1950. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  2. ^ "Lakshmi Mittal, Owner of Karrick Limited". Blommberg BusinessWeek. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  3. ^ Lakshmi Mittal, the King of Steel, Trips Up business-week.com. Retrieved September 2010.
  4. ^ "LN Mittal, Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy get Padma Vibhushan". The Times Of India. 26 January 2008. Retrieved 26 January 2008.
  5. ^ a b c Forbes profile: Lakshmi Mittal Retrieved March 2013
  6. ^ Mittal richest in Europe and UK; fifth in the world
  7. ^ UK POLITICS | Tory pressure over Mittal row. BBC News (2002-02-12). Retrieved on 2013-07-14.
  8. ^ Forbes: The World's Most Powerful People 2012 Retrieved 2012-07-18
  9. ^ The 12 Most Expensive Weddings In History
  10. ^ http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE%3AMT
  11. ^ Goldman Sachs: Board of Directors - Lakshmi N. Mittal Retrieved 2012-07-19
  12. ^ "Lakshmi Mittal, Board of Directors of European Aeronautic Defence and Space". Blommberg BusinessWeek. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2011.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h ArcelorMittal: Board of directors - Lakshmi N Mittal Retrieved 2012-07-19
  14. ^ "The Time 100". Time.
  15. ^ "Lakshmi Mittal Biography: Education, Net Worth and His Personal Life". financeninvestments.com. 3 September 2010. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  16. ^ From the Caribbean to global steel giant: The rise of ArcelorMittal
  17. ^ DNA - Sport - Mittal’s Olympic dream is worth Rs 40 crore - Daily News & Analysis
  18. ^ How tycoon went from polo lawns to Polish jail The Times 27 November 2004
  19. ^ "Poland wants to renegotiate terms of PHS sale to Arcelor Mittal". Abcmoney.co.uk. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  20. ^ UK’s richest man in slave labour row
  21. ^ a b Plaid reveals Labour steel cash link Monday, 11 February 2002, extracted 11-01-07
  22. ^ Lakshmi Mittal, steel mill millionaire Thursday, 14 February 2002, extracted 11-01-07
  23. ^ Q&A: 'Garbagegate' Thursday, 14 February 2002 extracted 11-01-07
  24. ^ a b "Q&A: 'Garbagegate'". BBC News. 14 February 2002. Retrieved 9 December 2011.
  25. ^ Steel firm condemns 'Mittal aid' , 18 February 2002, 14:47 GMT extracted 11-01-07
  26. ^ "QPR secure huge investment boost". BBC. London. 20 December 2007. Retrieved 20 December 2007.
  27. ^ Lakshmi Mittal pushes QPR up the rich list by Kevin Garside, Daily Telegraph, 21 December 2007
  28. ^ "Briatore resigns as QPR chairman". Reuters. 19 February 2010. Retrieved 20 February 2010.
  29. ^ O'Connor, Lisa (8 August 2004). "STEEL PLANT MESS BILL HAS DOUBLED | Sunday Mirror Newspaper | Find Articles at BNET". Findarticles.com. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  30. ^ "$128M Spend for London House". MSNBC. 12 April 2004.
  31. ^ Takeover Week: Billionaires Row (Rob) - Google Sightseeing
  32. ^ "Photo Gallery: Homes Of The Billionaires". Forbes.com. 22 May 2002. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  33. ^ a b "On billionaire row, it's simple, veggie fare". Times of India. 28 September 2008. Retrieved 31 May 2012.
  34. ^ The Mittal Monopoly: Britain's richest man buys property
  35. ^ "Lakshmi Mittal builds real Utopia". The Times Of India. 18 August 2005.
  36. ^ "Mittal chosen for 2007 Eisenhower Award". The Times Of India. 28 February 2006.
  37. ^ "BCIU Gala".
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