New Delhi: Indian-origin steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, who spent eight years at the top of the Sunday Times Rich List, is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal, the biggest steel producing company of the world. In 2013, a £2.7 billion drop in his wealth in the past 12 months sent Mittal from the top spot to the fourth place. Mittal is well known to turn sick steel companies into money spinners, something which has always amazed the industry and his peers. He has shown India's hardworking middle class what they can achieve if they set a goal for. His business acumen, swift decision making ability and boldness has resulted in the spectacular amount of wealth.Mittal has been a member of the board of directors of Goldman Sachs since 2008,and is also member of the board of directors of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company. He sits on the World Steel Association's executive committee,and is a member of the Indian Prime Minister's Global Advisory Council, the Foreign Investment Council in Kazakhstan, the World Economic Forum's International Business Council, and the Presidential International Advisory Board of Mozambique.Let's take a look at fifteen interesting facts about him and his life. 1. Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born on June 15, 1950 at Sadulpur, in Churu district of Rajasthan. His grandfather worked for one of the leading industrial firms, whereas his father was a businessman. The family relocated to Kolkata after his father joined a domestic steel company as a partner. He graduated in commerce from St. Xavier's College in Kolkata and joined the family business along with his two younger brothers Pramod Mittal and Vinod Mittal. Mittal's joining of family's company “Ispat” marked the turning point of his life.2. Starting in Indonesia in 1975, he built a new mill on land his father held in Indonesia which he then operated. Within a year, Mittal established Ispat International, a unit of his father's company, in Indonesia and was focusing on running its operations.“I realized that life is too short to build a steel company from scratch,” Mittal told Fortune in 2006.According to Financial Times, this faith created 'the only true global steel company.' In addition it also fortified his reputation as a doctor of sick steel mills. 3. He spent the late 1970s and early 1980s running the Indonesian mill for his family's company. But starting in 1989 with a plant in Trinidad and Tobago, Mittal began purchasing and overhauling struggling steel mills in areas such as Mexico, Romania, and Ukraine,. In 1994, the Mittals split up the family business. Ispat International went public in 1997, and in 2004, Lakshmi integrated his privately held steel company, LNM Holdings, into Ispat for $13 billion—and Mittal Steel took shape.4. In order to become a major player in the global steel market, Mittal turned to Kazakhstan. Mittal bought the country's Karmet Steel works in Temirtau for just $400 million. The single acquisition turned out of be the wisest decision by Mittal since Kazakhstan shares a border with China, a country where the steel demand was about to rise. Later Lakshmi Mittal became a global steel producer with operations in 14 countries.5. Visionary Mittal saw immense opportunity in the fragmented international steel industry that was crying out for consolidation. It was largely because lots of companies were owned by the governments and research and development was inexistent. The sector was characterized by acute over capacity, high indebtedness and steel prices that had hit rock bottom.6. Lakshmi Mittal created Mittal Steel in 2004 through a takeover of his private company, “LNM” by his public one; Ispat. Mittal Steel became the largest steelmaker in the world, with shipments of 42.1 million tons of steel and profits of over $22 billion in 2004.7. Mittal's biggest and boldest move came in 2006, when he tried to buy Arcelor, a company created through a merger of firms from Spain, France, Luxembourg and Belgium. Luxembourg-based Arcelor was at the second spot in the industry, and its C.E.O., Guy Dollé, rejected Mittal's initial offer of $24 billion. But due to shareholder uproar, the Frenchman eventually sold his company to Mittal for $33.5 billion. At that time Arcelor chairman, Guy Dolle, was forced to swallow his words after dismissing Mittal Steel as a company of Indians paying with monkey money. As of today ArcelorMittal is the world's number one steel and mining company, with over 260,000 employees in more than 60 countries.8. On a personal note, Mittal believes in living a luxurious life. He has bought for himself lots of luxury houses. He purchased his current residence at 18-19 Kensington Palace Gardens for $128 million, making it the most expensive home at the time. Mittal's house was nicknamed by the media as Taj Mittal, since it has interiors decorated by the marble taken from the same excavation that was supplied to build the Taj Mahal. He also married off his daughter Vanisha Mittal to an investment banker Amit Bhatia. He spent over $78 million in making it a flashy ceremony which comprised of Bollywood stars, leading industrialists and top-notch politicians. 9. Lakshmi Mittal calls himself as a ‘global citizen'. Despite his immense wealth, he doesn't seek the limelight. You won't see him at the Wimbledon, although he does attend football matches, after buying 20 per cent of London club QPR.10. Lakshmi Mittal is an active philanthropist who donates large sums to sporting, educational and healthcare charities, including a £15 million gift to London's Great Ormand Street Hospital.11. There has been reports in the media about Mittal owning a super luxury Vanity van, but the Steel King strongly denies having one.12. His also owns a bungalow at Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi, India, the most exclusive street in the city.13. Mittal has also set up Mittal Champions Trust with $9 million to support 10 Indian athletes with world-beating potential. In 2008, Mittal awarded Abhinav Bindra with Rs. 1.5 crore for getting India its first individual Olympic gold medal in shooting.14. In 2002, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal and Usha Mittal foundation also established a university named the LNM Institute of Information Technology (LNMIIT) in Jaipur as an autonomous non-profit organization.15. Mittal has denied media reports of trying to secure deposits of coking coal and iron ore, vital for the production of steel. Mittal says his group already has quite a large supply of coal and iron ore, and his group owns coal mines in Russia . The group has rather sold its interests in an Australian coal mining company MacArthur Coal.
