Lakshmi Mittal Net Worth & Biography

In this biography post, we are going to talk about the life and success of Lakshmi Mittal, an Indian businessman and steel magnate who is based in the United Kingdom. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal, arguably the most successful steelmaking company in the world. This man owns 40 percent of the said company and holds around 20 percent stake in the English Championship team Queens Park Rangers F.C. In 1976, due to the restriction of steel production by the government of India, Mittal, 26 years old by then, opened his first steel factory called PT Ispat Indo in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia. Until the year the 1990s, the main assets owned by his family in India were an alloy steels plant near Pune and a cold rolling mill for sheet steels in Nagpur. Today, the family business, including an integrated steel plant near Mumbai, is managed by his younger brothers Vinod Mittal and Pramod Mittal, but Lakshmi has no connection with it. In the year 2005, Forbes magazine ranked Mittal as the third-wealthiest individual across the globe, which registered him the first Indian national to be ranked in the top 10 in the published annual list of the richest people on earth. In 2017, he was considered to be the wealthiest Asian person in Europe. He was ranked the sixth wealthiest person in the world by Forbes magazine in 2019 but dropped several places down to the 170th position in March 2020. More details follow below.

Early Life: Childhood, Education

Lakshmi Mittal was born on 15 June 1950 in the Rajasthani Marwari family in Sadulpur, Rajasthan. He was raised there in the company of his siblings including his two brothers Pramod and Vinod.

He is a well-read man as well. For his education, he attended Shri Daulatram Nopany in Calcutta, where he studied from 1957 to 1964. He later graduated from St. Xavier College, affiliated to the University of Calcutta. He holds a first-class bachelor’s degree in communication.

Professional Life: Entrepreneurial Career

Mr. Mittal is a wealthy man today, and it’s important to include that he was born into a wealthy Indian steel family. His career started when he began working for his father in the family’s steel manufacturing business in India, where he gained experience and knowledge in steel and related businesses. In 1976 he established the Mittal Steel Company, eventually merging his own company with French steel-making company Arcelor in 2006 to form ArcelorMittal.

In addition to his successful work in the steel industry, Mittal is a notable philanthropist and a member of many boards and trusts. He has maintained his position as a board member of Goldman Sachs since 2008.

He opened his own steel mill and successfully ran it for a period before deciding to broaden his business by acquiring and reorganizing failing mills around the world. His growth model emulated other industries around the globe, such as iron and coal companies as well as car manufacturers. As part of his goal to make his company a world-renowned player in the steel industry, this intelligent investor acquired companies in countries like Canada, Germany, and Kazakhstan.

His business started evolving in 2004 when he merged two of his companies: LNM Holdings and Ispat International. He also moved to acquire the International Steel Group based in Ohio, and also created the new TMittal Steel Company N.V. In 2006, the company merged with Arcelor to form ArcelorMittal. Today, ArcelorMittal is the largest steel manufacturer in the world, said to be worth more than $100 billion. Additionally, Mittal acquired the Karmet Steel works based in Temirtau, Kazakhstan, for about $400 million. The move turned out to be beneficial for the businessman, as Kazakhstan shares a border with the highly populated China, where demand for his products was about to explode. This acquisition proved to be a wise move for Mittal as it vaulted him into the top levels of steel production.

Mittal focused particularly on partnerships in the steel industry, which had become fragmented in many cases. Small steel companies were not capable of making competitive deals with large clients like automakers despite high demand. His company was in a comfortable position to negotiate favorable prices with intended companies as it controlled nearly 40 percent of the market for flat-rolled steel in the United States of America.

Personal Life: Family, Wife, Children

This steel tycoon has been married to Usha Mittal for many years now. They are the proud parents of two children, a daughter named Vanisha Mittal and a son Aditya Mittal.

He lives with his family in a colonial bungalow that he bought for $30 million in the year 2005, located in New Delhi, India. His neighborhood is one of the most exclusive in the country, occupied by embassies and billionaires like him.

Lakshmi Mittal Net Worth: Salary, Income Sources, Assets

Mr. Lakshmi Mittal’s net worth is currently pegged at $18 billion. As it stands, he is the chairman and chief executive officer of the world’s leading steel-making company known as ArcelorMittal, and this is the main source of his wealth.

Lakshmi is one of the richest people in India. At the time when his net worth topped $40 billion, the CEO was the richest person in the United Kingdom and in the whole of Asia. He owns a 37 percent stake in his company ArcelorMittal. In 2004, he paid $2 billion worth of dividends from LNM Holdings to himself. It was in that same year that he purchased International Steel Group. Two years later, he acquired Arcelor for $38.3 billion and eventually fused all his businesses together to form a single known brand. Mr. Lakshmi purchased 472 million shares of ArcelorMittal in 2016. He owns three luxurious mansions in London on “Billionaire’s Row” for which he paid more than $470 million. Additionally, he owns 41 percent of stainless steel-making company Aperam and around 20 percent stake in Queens Park Rangers F.C. of the English Championship.