Story of LN Mittal - Archelor Mittal

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born in the village of Safalpur, India, on June 15, 1950. Lakshmi spent his first years in India, living with his extended family on bare floors and rope beds in a house built by his grandfather. His family, from the Marwari Aggarwal castel, was from humble roots; his grandfather worked for a leading Marwari industrial firms of pre-independence India. Lakshmi was a keen student and his classmates knew him as a sharp student who was good with numbers.

Lakshmi Mittal began his career working in the family's steelmaking business in India, and in 1976, when the family founded its own steel business, Mittal set out to establish its international division, beginning with the buying of a run-down plant in Indonesia. Shortly afterwards he married Usha, the daughter of a well-to-do moneylender, who would become a key adviser to the future tycoon. In 1994, due to differences with his father and brothers, he branched out on his own, taking over the international operations of the Mittal steel business, which was already owned by the family.

Parting ways with his father, Mittal purchased a money-losing state mill in Trinidad in 1989, the same year that the Berlin Wall fell. His strategy, as explained to management professor Sumantra Ghoshal: “We set very aggressive targets because we don’t benchmark companies based on local standards, but on international standards. If the management of the acquired company is willing to commit to these targets, they stay. If they have any problems following our business plan and vision, they go.”

The new owner of Sparrows Point (His new house) has come a long way in a short time – an Indian now living in London who is reputed to be the world’s third richest person.

In his 16-year rise from obscurity to opulence, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal has multiplied his steel holdings by 138 times. As recently as four years ago, before he became embroiled in an influence-peddling scandal involving UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, he was known mostly for his oddball collection of steel mills in such countries as Kazakhstan, Trinidad, and Mexico.Today, he is the biggest steelmaker on the globe, holds a dominant position in the U.S., employs 165,000 people worldwide, and, at least on paper, has climbed to the uppermost rungs of the mega-rich.

With a net worth vaulting last year from $6 billion to $25 billion, according to Forbes magazine, Mittal has not been shy about advertising his wealth. He shelled out $125 million last year for a mansion next door to the royal family’s Kensington Palace in London. The property, comprising the former Egyptian and Russian embassies joined together, boasts 55,000 square feet of floor space, a swimming pool inlaid with jewels, Turkish baths, a ballroom, and a 20-car garage. Purchased from Formula One racing boss Bernie Eccleston, the house is the most expensive private residence in the world, excluding that of royalty.

Mittal also raised eyebrows last year for the lavish wedding of his 23-year-old daughter Vanisha. Invitations for the Hindu nuptials were 20 pages thick, encased in silver, and contained jade necklaces or diamond watches for close family friends. The industrialist chartered 12 Boeing jets to fly 1,500 guests from India for five days of festivities in France that ranged from the Tulleries Gardens in Paris to the Palace of Versailles. Fireworks filled the skies, Bollywood stars mixed with the guests, 5,000 bottles of Mouton-Rothschild 1986 were consumed, and pop star Kylie Minogue entertained the throngs before a makeshift castle. The Indian press tagged the cost at $55 million.

Rupees 1,100,000,000,000. Or Rs 110,000 crores!- yes thats the net worth of Archelor Mittal

That's the approximate amount of money the world's third richest man Lakshmi N Mittal is valued at.

What can a man do with that kind of money? Well, with that:

• He can wipe out the entire debt of cash-strapped Maharashtra (Rs 105,000 crore at last count) and still have enough small change (Rs 5,000 crore) to be counted among the country's rich and famous.
• He can four- or six-lane all of India's national highways two times over. (Government estimates say that the ambitious highway project would cost India Rs 55,000 crore).
• He can buy 4,400,000 (44 lakh) Maruti [Get Quote] 800 cars. That means he can buy every Maruti 800 sold in India for the next 34 years! (calculated at today's prices, assuming that 130,000 Maruti 800s are sold each year).
  Or, if Marutis are not his style, he can buy 22,000 of the Rs 5-crore Maybach luxury cars.
• He can clear off over 20% of India's external debt of about $120 billion.
• He can buy 35% of all of India exports this year (India's exports touched a record $70 billion this year).
• He can eat McDonalds Family Value Meal (@ Rs 199 twice a day) for the next 7,500,000 years!
• He can stay at Taj Mahal hotel's (Mumbai) grand luxury suite (@ Rs 42,650 per night) for 70,661 years (you could lop off a couple of thousand years if he's ordering room service).
• He accounts for 3.84% of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) -- which in 2004-05 was approximately at $650 billion.
• He can make rupee millionaires of the entire population of the cities of Howrah or Meerut or Varanasi or Nashik (these cities have populations between 10 lakh to 11 lakh as per the 2001 census).
• Give every Indian (Yes, you, me and the rest of the billion of us) $25 (Rs 1,084).
• He can also fly 55 million Indians to and fro London on Air-India flights (with air fares plummeting Air-India is offering a one-way fare to London of about Rs 20,000)!
• He already owns the world's most expensive housewhich he bought last year in central London at a stunning price of $128.25 million. He can buy 190 more of those at yet have over half-a-billion dollars left at his disposal.
• Mittal's 25 billion dollar-notes would weigh 2.5 million kg (a dollar bill weighs 1 gram).

Source: Rediff.com