London-based billionaire Lakshmi Mittal and his son Aditya are planning a $17.8B acquisition of an Ohio company which will make Mittal Steel the world’s biggest:

Last week, in a complicated $17.8 billion deal, Indian entrepreneur Lakshmi Mittal said he would merge his existing steel assets — the privately-held LNM Holdings and the publicly-traded Ispat International — with the U.S.-based International Steel Group (ISG). The deal, which must still gain regulatory approval, would create the world’s biggest steel company, Mittal Steel, to be based in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, and help Mittal pursue his modest goal of making Mittal as synonymous with steel as Ford is with the motor car. The new company could produce up to 10% of the world’s steel…

Mittal made his $6.8B fortune in steel mills all over the world, including Calcutta, Romania, Mexico and Kazakhstan. Ironically, Mittal no longer owns any steel mills in India itself.

He has been able to generate profits by using his scale to buy lower-cost raw materials and by importing modern management techniques into previously inefficient state-run mills.

Mittal’s business model:

Mittal’s success has been the integration chain he kickstarted: from mines to plants to workshops… The big-ticket acquisition came in 1992, when he gained control of a two-million tonne plant in Mexico, Sibalsa Mill, for $220 million. Sibalsa was losing $1 million a day. Mittal increased employee output five-fold and soon it was accounting for 63% of the groups profit becoming the “crown” of the empire.

His spending recently raised eyebrows:

Last April, Mittal dropped $128 million on a 12-bedroom neo-classical mansion in London’s fashionable Kensington. Two months later, he hosted 1,000 guests in and around Paris for his daughter’s weeklong wedding celebration. The festivities included a formal bash at the Palace of Versailles and cost a rumored $50 million.

That house is twice as expensive as Bill Gates’ pad. Here are photos of the Paris wedding:

The Mittals and Bhatias have been friends for several years but the bride, a post-graduate from London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, met the dashing Delhi-born banker from Cornell University, New York, while both were working at Credit Suisse at Canary Wharf in London.

… heartthrob Shah Rukh and screen siren Rani Mukherjee as well as Aussie nymphet Kylie Minogue gyrated to loud music at a party before the big day… Weeks of speculation as to whether Bollywood goddess Aishwarya Rai would make an appearance was also finally put to rest – the beauty, together with actor Akshay Kumar, rounded off the nuptials with a bang when they performed at the wedding ceremony on Tuesday night…

… the marriage of Mittal’s son, Aditya, in Calcutta four years ago was a similarly ostentatious affair with scores of servants and bejewelled elephants. Bollywood film star Shah Rukh Khan was paid ?300,000 [$580K] … to dance at the reception. 

More wedding coverage:

For India’s mega rich, 10,000 guests is the norm for a wedding but Mittal is determined that Vanisha’s marriage will be tasteful, exclusive and different. A bill of more than ?30 million seems inevitable once the diamond and gold jewellery, designer clothes for the families of the bride and groom, transport and hotels, hire of venues in France, deployment of the best chefs (the Mittals are vegetarian) and “goody bags” are taken into account.

I wonder whether Mittal is the world’s richest vegetarian?

Update: The Mittals do not read this blog. I do not know how to contact them. Don’t even think of posting a comment here trying to contact them. It will probably be deleted.

Update 2: Comments closed.