Lakshmi Mittal | |
|---|---|
 Mittal in 2013 | |
| Born | (1950-06-15)15 June 1950 (age 75)[1][2] |
| Citizenship | Indian[3] |
| Alma mater | St. Xavier's College, Kolkata, (B.Com.)[1] |
| Occupation(s) | Chairman ofArcelorMittal&Aperam Owner of Karrick Limited[4] Co-owner ofQueens Park Rangers F.C. |
| Known for | Steel magnate King of Steel[5] |
| Board member of | Goldman Sachs |
| Spouse | Usha Mittal |
| Children | 2, includingAditya Mittal |
| Relatives | Pramod Mittal (brother) |
| Family | Mittal family |
| Awards | Padma Vibhushan (2008)[6] |
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal (Hindi:[ˈləkʃminɪˈʋaːsˈmɪtːəl]ⓘ; born 15 June 1950) is an Indian steel magnate,[7] based in theUnited Kingdom. He is the executive chairman ofArcelorMittal, the world's second largest steelmaking company,[8] as well as chairman of stainless steel manufacturerAperam.[9] Mittal owns 38% of ArcelorMittal and holds a 3% stake inEFL Championship sideQueens Park Rangers.[10]
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.[11][12] He was ranked thesixth-richest person in the world byForbes in 2011, but dropped to82nd place in March 2015,[13] and only to 130th by October 2024.[14] He is also the "57th-most powerful person" of the 72 individuals named inForbes' "Most Powerful People" list for 2015.[15] His daughter Vanisha Mittal's wedding (in 2005) was the sixth-most expensive inrecorded history.[16]
Mittal has been a member of the board of directors ofGoldman Sachs since 2008.[17] He sits on theWorld 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] theWorld 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 theCleveland Clinic.[18]
In 2005,The Sunday Times named him "Business Person of 2006", theFinancial Times named him "Person of the Year", andTime magazine named him "International Newsmaker of the Year 2006".[18] In 2007,Time magazine included him in their "Time 100" list.[19]
Mittal was born in aMarwari Hindu family. He studied at Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya,Calcutta from 1957 to 1964.[20] He graduated fromSt. Xavier's College, affiliated to theUniversity of Calcutta, with aB.Com degree in the first class.
Lakshmi's father, Mohanlal Mittal, ran a steel business, Nippon Denro Ispat.[21] In 1976, because of the curb of steel production by the Indian government, the 26-year-old Mittal opened his first steel factory PT Ispat Indo inSidoarjo,East Java,Indonesia.[22][23]
In 1989, Mittal purchased the state-owned steel works inTrinidad and Tobago, which were operating at an enormous loss. He turned them into profitable ventures in a year.[24][25]
Until the 1990s, the family's main assets in India were a cold-rolling mill for sheet steel inNagpur and an alloy steel plant nearPune. Today, the family business, including a large integrated steel plant nearMumbai, is run by his younger brothersPramod Mittal and Vinod Mittal, but Lakshmi has no connection with it.[26]
In 1995, Mittal purchased theIrish Steel plant based inCork,Ireland, from the government for a nominal fee ofIR£1.[27] Only six years later in 2001 it was closed, leaving over 400 people redundant.[27] Subsequent environmental issues at the site have been a cause for criticism. The Irish government sought a High Court judgement that Mittal's company should contribute to the cost of the clean-up ofCork Harbour, but failed.[28] The clean up was expected to cost €70 million.[29]
Before December 2001, Mittal had acquired assets which he renamed Ispat Mexicana and his Kazakhstani operation Ispat Karmet. That month, he renamed Sidex Galati to Ispat Sidex,[30] which he had acquired in November 2001.[31]
In October 2003, the LNM Group succeeded in concluding the $155 million transaction to pry loose the Romanian government from the control of steel assets Siderurgica Hunedoara and Petrotub Roman, the day after it took over the PHS Steel Group, which included Huta Sendzimira, Huta Katowice, Huta Florian, and Huta Cedler from the Polish government.[32]
Petrotub Roman was renamed Ispat Tepro in the sequel.[33]
Mittal successfully employedMarek Dochnal's consultancy to influence Polish officials in the 2003 privatisation of PHS steel group, which was then Poland's largest. Dochnal was later arrested for bribing Polish officials on behalf of Russian agents in a separate affair.[34]
Employees of Mittal have accused him of allowing "slave labour" conditions after multiple fatalities in his mines.[35] For example, during December 2004, 23 miners died in explosions in his mines inKazakhstan caused by faulty gas detectors.[36]
In 2006–07, Mittal succeeded in a hostile takeover bid forArcelor, which he renamedArcelor Mittal. In so doing, he obtained control of, amongst others, theUsinor steel assets of France, theArbed steel assets of Luxembourg, and theAceralia steel assets of Spain.[25]
In 2002,Plaid CymruMPAdam Price obtained a letter written byTony Blair to the Romanian Government in support of Mittal's LNM Group steel company, which was in the process of bidding to buy Romania's state-owned industry.[37][38][39] This revelation caused controversy, because Mittal had given £125,000 to the BritishLabour 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 theDutch Antilles and employed less than 1% of its workforce in the UK.[39] LNM was a "major global competitor of Britain's own struggling steel industry".[40]
Blair's letter hinted that the privatisation of the firm and sale to Mittal might help smooth the way for Romania's entry into theEuropean Union.[37] It also had a passage, removed just before Blair's signing of it, describing Mittal as "a friend".[39]
In October 2003, the LNM Group succeeded in concluding the transaction to pry loose the Romanian government from the control of steel assets.[32]
After witnessing India win only one medal,bronze, in the2000 Summer Olympics, and one medal,silver, at the2004 Summer Olympics, Mittal decided to set up theMittal Champions Trust with $9 million to support ten Indian athletes with world-beating potential.[41] In 2008, Mittal awardedAbhinav 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 theArcelorMittal Orbit for the2012 Summer Olympics.[42]
ForComic Relief he matched the money raised (~£1 million) on the celebrity special BBC programme,The Apprentice.[citation needed]
Mittal had emerged as a leading contender to buy and sellBarclays Premiership clubsWigan andEverton. However, on 20 December 2007, it was announced that the Mittal family had purchased a 20 per cent shareholding inQueens Park Rangers football club joiningFlavio Briatore and Mittal's friendBernie Ecclestone.[43] 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 asRoman Abramovich.[44] On 19 February 2010, Briatore resigned as QPR chairman, and sold further shares in the club to Ecclestone, making Ecclestone the single largest shareholder.[45]
In 2003, the Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, Usha Mittal Foundation and theGovernment of Rajasthan partnered together to establish a university, theLNM Institute of Information Technology (LNMIIT) inJaipur as an autonomous non-profit organisation.[46]
In 2009, the Foundation along withBharatiya Vidya Bhavan founded the Usha Lakshmi Mittal Institute of Management inNew Delhi.[citation needed]
SNDT Women's University renamed the Institute of Technology for Women (ITW) asUsha Mittal Institute of Technology after a large donation from the Lakshmi Niwas Mittal Foundation.[citation needed]
He completed his primary and secondary school from Nopany High, formerly known as Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya.
In 2008, the Mittals made a donation of £15 million toGreat 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.[47]
He made a donation of ₹100crores to PM cares fund during theCOVID-19 pandemic in India in 2020.[48]
Mittal is married to Usha Dalmia. They have a sonAditya Mittal and a daughter, Vanisha Mittal.
Lakshmi Mittal has two brothers, Pramod Mittal and Vinod Mittal, and a sister, Seema Lohia, who marriedIndonesian businessman,Sri Prakash Lohia.[1][2] His residence at 18–19Kensington Palace Gardens—which was purchased fromFormula One bossBernie Ecclestone in 2004 for £67 million (US$128 million)—made it the world's most expensive house at the time.[49] The house is decorated with marble taken from the samequarry that supplied theTaj Mahal.[50] The extravagant show of wealth has been referred to as the "Taj Mittal".[51] It has 12 bedrooms, an indoor pool, Turkish baths and parking for 20 cars.[52] He is alacto-vegetarian.[53]
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 toAmit Bhatia, a businessman andphilanthropist. Mittal threw a lavish "vegetarian reception" for Vanisha in thePalace of Versailles, France.[53]
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 inIndia, occupied by embassies and billionaires, and rebuilt it as a house.[54]
In 2025, Mittal was reported to be preparing to leave the United Kingdom after nearly three decades of residence, following the UK government’s decision to abolish the non-domiciled (“non-dom”) tax status.[55]
According to theSunday Times Rich List 2016, Mittal and his family had an estimated personalnet worth of£7.12 billion,[56] a decrease of $2.08 billion on the previous year.[57] Meanwhile, in 2016Forbes magazine's annual billionaires list assessed estimated Mittal's wealth in 2016 at as the 135th-wealthiest billionaire with a net worth ofUS$8.4 billion.[58] Mittal's net worth peaked in 2008, assessed byThe Sunday Times at £27.70 billion,[59] and byForbes atUS$45.0 billion, and rated as the fourth-wealthiest individual in the world.[60] As of 2022, he was ranked as the 15th richest man in India byForbes with a net-worth of US$17.8 billion.[61] According to Forbes, Lakshmi Mittal’s net worth is currently estimated at US$16.4 billion as of 2024. He holds the position of the 113th richest individual globally and ranks as the 13th wealthiest person in India.[62][63]
In October 2024, Mittal was ranked 15th on Forbes' list of India’s 100 richest tycoons, with a net worth of $16.7 billion.[64]
| Legend | |
|---|---|
| Icon | Description |
 | Has not changed from the previous year's list |
 | Has increased from the previous year's list |
 | Has decreased from the previous year's list |
| Year | The Sunday Times Rich List | Forbes The World's Billionaires | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Net worth (£)bn | Rank | Net worth (US$)bn | |
| 2005 | 3 | $25.00 | ||
| 2006 | 1 | £14.88 | 5 | $23.50 |
| 2007[65] | 1 | £19.25 | 5 | $32.00 |
| 2008[59][60] | 1 | £27.70 | 4 | $45.00 |
| 2009[66][67] | 1 | £10.80 | 8 | $19.30 |
| 2010[68][69][70] | 1 | £22.45 | 5 | $28.70 |
| 2011[71] | 1 | £17.50 | 6 | $31.10 |
| 2012[72] | 1 | £12.70 | 21 | $20.70 |
| 2013[73][74] | 4 | £10.00 | 41 | $16.50 |
| 2014[75] | 3 | £10.25 | 52 | $13.70 |
| 2015[13][76][77] | 7 | £9.20 | 82 | $13.50 |
| 2016[56][58] | 11 | £7.12 | 135 | $8.40 |
| 2020[78][79] | 19 | £6.78 | 196 | $9.70 |
| 2024[80][81] | 7 | £14.92 | 113 | $16.4 |
| Year of award or honour | Name of award or honour | Awarding 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 |
decision by the High Court last week that the State and not Irish Ispat should be responsible for bearing the costs of the clean-up
Media related toLakshmi Mittal at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
