What Is Lakshmi Mittal's Net Worth?
Lakshmi Mittal is an Indian steel magnate who has a net worth of $18 billion. Based in the U.K., Lakshmi Mittal is the chairman and former CEO of the second-largest largest steel making company in the world, ArcelorMittal, and he serves as chairman of Aperam, a stainless steel manufacturer. Lakshmi was born into a wealthy Indian steel family, and he started his career in India by working in the family steelmaking business.
Lakshmi Mittal's net worth makes him one of the richest people in India. At one point when his net worth topped $40 billion, he was the richest person in Asia and the United Kingdom. At his peak, Mittal was the second-richest person in Europe and the 21st-richest person in the entire world. Lakshmi was a pioneer in the development of integrated mini-mills and the use of "DRI" (direct reduced iron) used as a scrap substitute for steelmaking. Mittal led the consolidation process of the global steel industry and was named one of 2007's "100 Most Influential People" by "Time" magazine.
Mittal's company has not been free from controversy, however, with many accusing him of exploiting "slave labor" conditions in his mines around the world. Between 2004 and 2007, his mines in Kazakhstan were responsible for the deaths of a total of 91 coalminers. Lakshmi has been involved in several other controversies involving political corruption and the working conditions through which he has accumulated his vast wealth. He is also known for his philanthropy, in particular his funding of a program to support Indian athletes in the Olympics following his disappointment in India's showing. Mittal was ranked #57 on "Forbes" magazine's 2015 "Most Powerful People" list, and he was named "Business Person of 2006" by the "The Sunday Times," "Person of the Year" by "Financial Times" (2005), and "International Newsmaker of the Year 2006" by "Time" magazine. Lakshmi has been a member of the Goldman Sachs board of directors, the World Steel Association executive committee, the European Round Table of Industrialists, the Cleveland Clinic board of trustees, the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries Global CEO Council, the World Economic Forum International Business Council, and Kazakhstan's Foreign Investment Council.
Net Worth Details
Mittal owns a 37% stake in ArcelorMittal. In 2004, he paid himself $2 billion worth of dividends from LNM Holdings. Lakshmi purchased International Steel Group in 2004 and acquired Arcelor in 2006 for $38.3 billion. In 2016, he purchased 472 million shares of ArcelorMittal. He owns three mansions on "Billionaire's Row" in London, which he spent more than $470 million for. Mittal also owns 41% of stainless steel maker Aperam and a 3% stake in the Queens Park Rangers Football Club.
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Early Life
Lakshmi Mittal was born Lakshmi Niwas Mittal on June 15, 1950, in Sadulpur, Rajasthan, India. He has three siblings, sister Seema and brothers Vinod and Pramod. Lakshmi grew up in a Hindu Marwadi household. He attended Shri Daulatram Nopany Vidyalaya, Calcutta, and he earned a B.Com degree in the first class from St. Xavier's College, which is affiliated with the University of Calcutta. Mittal's father, Mohanlal, ran a steel business called Nippon Denro Ispat. When Lakshmi was 26 years old, he opened the steel factory PT Ispat Indo in Indonesia after the Indian government began curbing steel production.
Career
In the late '80s, Trinidad and Tobago's state-owned steel works were operating at a loss, so Mittal purchased them in 1989, making them profitable within a year. Prior to the '90s, the Mittal family's primary assets in India were a sheet steel cold-rolling mill and an alloy steels plant, but their business expanded to include a large steel plant close to Mumbai, which Lakshmi's younger brothers run. In 1995, Mittal bought the Irish Steel plant in Cork from the Irish government for just IR£1, and it closed six years later. In 2003, his LNM Group completed a $155 million transaction to loosen the Romanian government's control of the steel assets Petrotub Roman and Siderurgica Hunedoara, and it also took control of the PHS Steel Group from the Polish government. A few years later, Lakshmi oversaw a successful takeover bid for steel producer Arcelor, and he renamed it ArcelorMittal. When he took over Arcelor, Lakshmi also obtained control of France's Usinor steel assets, Spain's Aceralia steel assets, and Luxembourg's Arbed steel assets. Lakshmi ceded the position of ArcelorMittal CEO to his son in 2021.
Personal Life
Lakshmi and his wife, Usha Kalra, have two children, daughter Vanisha and son Aditya. He purchased a home in Kensington Gardens for Vanisha in 2008; the home was previously the Philippines Embassy, and Mittal paid £70 million for it. Lakshmi is passionate about philanthropy, and in 2008 he donated £15 million to London's Great Ormond Street Hospital to help fund the Mittal Children's Medical Centre. He funded the Mittal Champions Trust, which was established in 2003 and "supported Indian athletes with world-beating potential." In 2003, Lakshmi founded the LNM Institute of Information Technology in Jaipur with the Government of Rajasthan and the Usha Mittal Foundation, and in 2009, he co-founded New Delhi's Usha Lakshmi Mittal Institute of Management. After the Lakshmi Niwas Mittal Foundation donated a large sum of money to SNDT Women's University, the school renamed its Institute of Technology for Women the Usha Mittal Institute of Technology. In 2020, Mittal donated ₹100 crores to the PM Cares Fund to "combat the spread of the deadly coronavirus in India."
Awards and Honors
In 1996, New Steel named Mittal Steel Maker of the Year. In 2004, he received American Metal Market and World Steel Dynamics' Willy Korf Steel Vision Award, and he was named Entrepreneur of the Year by "The Wall Street Journal" and European Businessman of the Year by "Forbes." In 2007, the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining honored Lakshmi with the Bessemer Gold Medal, and he was awarded a fellowship at King's College London. In 2008, he received a "Forbes" Lifetime Achievement Award, and he was appointed a Padma Vibhushan by the Government of India.
Real Estate
In early 2023, the Mittal family put a 6,279 square foot Manhattan condo in the Trump International Hotel & Tower on the market for $34.95 million. It was reported that "an unnamed member of billionaire Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal's family" paid $25 million for the six-bedroom, 2.5-bathroom property in 2018. The article also stated that Lakshmi had acquired his London mansion from "Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone for somewhere in the neighborhood of $128 million" in 2004.
