Last Sunday as Mohan Lal Mittal ushered in his 78th birthday at the Venkateswara temple in Tirupati, his son Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, who couldn't be with the father, called in from the US to wish him. You would have thought Mittal was shopping in Ohio for a gift. By the time Mohan Lal returned to his son Vinod's plush Mumbai home on Monday, October 25, the world had woken up to the fact that L.N. Mittal was now the biggest steel tycoon. Typically modest, Mohan Lal says, "I feel proud that an Indian is the world's largest steelmaker."

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PRECIOUS MITTAL: With a net worth of $18.48 bn, he is the biggest steel tycoon

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So are numbers. Consider this numerical soup. Operations in 14 countries, over 1,65,000 employees, annual production of 70 million tonnes of steel, revenues of over $31 billion (Rs 1,39,500 crore) for 2005, a listed entity with an expected market capitalisation of over $21 billion and 88 per cent stake that is worth $18.48 billion. Quite simply, Mittal who was ranked 62nd earlier this year added $12 billion in one deal and can nudge out the likes of Russian tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and the Thomson family for the 14th place on the Forbes billionaires list. Incidentally, with a wealth of over Rs 82800 crore he is also the richest in Britain and, of course, the richest Indian.

Today Mittal, 54, dons Armani suits, jets around the globe in a Gulfstream, travelling an average of 3,50,000 km every year, has over 20 fancy cars parked in his £70 million, 12-bedroom mansion in London's Kensington Palace Gardens, knows Camilla Parker Bowles and is a donor to Prince Charles' charitable trust, dines with the likes of Princess Anne and Prince Andrew and is friends with British Prime Minister Tony Blair besides other heads of state. Socialite evenings mean clinking glasses with fashion tycoons Philip Green of Arcadia and Peter Simon of Monsoon. The wedding of Mittal's son in Kolkata included a performance by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan while his daughter's Rs 240 crore-plus wedding was a five-day affair staged at a 17th century chateau featuring a Bollywood set, stars and a jig by pop diva Kylie Minogue for his millionaire friends.

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ISG Chairman Wilbur Ross Jr (left) with Mittal

Not bad for a commerce graduate from Kolkata's St Xavier's College who left India to escape the stifling protectionism and started out with a small 60,000 tonnes per annum (tpa) plant in Indonesia in 1976. But the first 20 years were a grind and Mittal became best known for turning around bleeding steel behemoths. It was only after he acquired Imexsa Mexico in 1992 that the world took notice and dubbed him the Carnegie from Calcutta. But it was in the late '90s that Mittal ramped up his conglomerate, Ispat, through a series of audacious acquisitions as former communist regimes opened up.

Mittal's acquisitions range from plants based at exotic locations to torrid climes. Sidex in Romania is on the banks of the romantic Danube while Karmet is in Kazakhstan where sub-zero temperatures are normal. But opportunity, not the locales, determined his strategy. Steel barons said his 1996 Karmet acquisition was doomed. Everything seemed wrong, beginning with 70,000 workers producing low-grade steel to liabilities that included the costs of running a tram service, a power station and the township. But Karmet, Mittal realised, was just 400 miles from China, which he had identified as a potential market. Today China with a production of 210 million tpa and imports of 50 million tpa (expected to rise to 120 million tpa) is one of the biggest importers of steel accounting for over 35 per cent of Karmet sales. But revenues wouldn't have come if Mittal hadn't cut costs at Karmet-from $268 per tonne to $114 per tonne. Ditto with others.

LIFE AND TIMES OF LNM    From Kolkata to Kensington Gardens, from a plant in Indonesia to a merger with ISG,    Mittal has seen it all

1970 Graduates from St Xavier's College, Kolkata, with a degree in commerce. 1971 Marries Usha from a Kolkata business family. 1976 After training with his father at a steel mill, L.N. Mittal leaves for Indonesia and sets up Ispat Indo, 60,000 tpa plant, with $15 million. It now produces 6,50,000 tonnes per annum. 1989 A buyer of ore, he discovers ailing Iscott Trinidad and Tobago, leases and turns it around. Today it is Caribbean Ispat. 1992 Bids for and takes over Imexsa Mexico, a $2.2 bn plant, for $25 mn downpayment and full payment of $220 mn. 1994 Business interests of the Mittal family are divided and brothers Pramod (left) and Vinod (right) split to form Ispat India. They now compete with LNM on overseas bids besides running an integrated plant near Mumbai. 1997 Ispat International NV floated on New York and Amsterdam stock exchanges. Group capacity crosses 21 mtpa. 1998 Is declared the richest Indian. Son Aaditya gets married in Kolkata at a high-decibel show where Shah Rukh performs. Acquires US Inland Steel. 2002 Gives £125,000 cheque to the Labour Party which is dubbed as a "cash for favour" donation since Blair wrote to the Romanian prime minister to support Mittal's effort to take over Sidex. Later Mittal takes over Ispat Nova Hut in the Czech Republic to be the second biggest steel producer. 2004 Buys home in Kensington Gardens for £70 million. Daughter Vanisha marries Amit Bhatia at an extravagant wedding. OCTOBER 25, 2004 Takes over ISG, Ohio, in an amalgamation deal that makes him the world's biggest steelmaker.

Mohan Lal used to tell his son that making steel was an art. But LNM says it is more of a science. Actually it is financial and management engineering. The key in his M&A strategies has been his Wharton-educated son Aaditya who even while at college would sit on Mittal's negotiating team and is now the chief financial officer-designate for the new Mittal Steel Company. The father-son duo executed a simple strategy. Given that Ispat International was a listed entity, it would be easier to leverage their other company, LNM Holdings, for acquisitions which were negotiated at basement bargains (the Mexican plant worth $2.2 billion was acquired at $220 million). Second, using the politically powerful employment leverage, Mittal extracted concessions on duties and tariffs. Third, most of his bigger plants are in developing countries where wage costs are low. But tapping the potential requires best practices and management. So while LNM Holdings has acquired the companies, the management is in the hands of the professional Ispat International and led by Mittal who holds conference with coos every Monday to keep the heat on.

STEELING A MARCH   The Carnegie of Calcutta has plants in 14   counties which annually spew over 70   million tonnes of steel

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With employees of more than 20 nationalities, the Mittal empire is a mini world. Says K.V. Kamath, CEO, ICICI Bank: "LN is a simple, straightforward person who is easy to approach and deal with. And he works hard to achieve his goals. This, plus his human qualities, is the secret of his success."

More than his scale, it is Mittal's global structure that is the envy of steel makers. Mittal has plants on virtually every continent and his 70 million tonne production is spread across a dozen time zones. Robert G. Hansen, senior associate dean at the Tuck School of Business, says, "Mittal's method of taking over distressed assets augurs well from the consumer's point of the view and enhances efficiency."

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HOT DEAL: The merger with ISG places Mittal on the No.1 spot

Not surprisingly, some of the best-known brands, including Ford, Toyota, Honda, Whirlpool and Maytag, are Mittal's customers. Which explains why he finds deals chasing him now. But he has not always been successful, he has been challenged by his own brothers Pramod and Vinod as also by circumstances. Yet nothing could stop his march. For a year now, since November 2003, Mittal has been snapping at the heels of Arcelor, the world's largest steelmaker which has an output of over 42 million tonnes of steel, with shipments of over 40 mtpa. He told India Today earlier this year, "It isn't the No. 1 status we are chasing but scale that can deliver value to shareholders." Then it sounded like typical business babble heard in corporate boardrooms of takeover tycoons. But babble it wasn't.

About 100 years ago J.P. Morgan shocked the industrial world and created history by combining Andrew Carnegie's steel operations with his US Steel to form an entity that today produces around 11 million tonnes of steel. Last week, on a Saturday afternoon in New York, Mittal outdid Morgan and Carnegie.In a $17 billion deal costing Mittal $4.5 billion, Ispat International would acquire LNM Holdings and subsequently merge with its former rival International Steel Group (ISG) which produces around 20 mtpa for revenues of $9 billion. Together it will form a new entity, the Mittal Steel Company. In one stroke, it will lead the No. 2 steel producer with over 28 million tonnes. To appreciate the leap, consider this. The difference-28 million tonnes-is a few tonnes less than India's total steel output. As Lord Apurv Bagri, fellow industrialist, says, "It is a move that shows vision and an appetite for well-calculated risks. Steel is an unglamorous industry but Mittal has made an impact on it." Nilesh Navlakha, director, Deutsche Bank, agrees, "Mittal's deal takes steel consolidation global."

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LIVING KING-SIZE: (Clockwise from top) Mittal's home is a £70 million mansion; his daughter Vanisha's wedding was Rs 240 crore-plus extravaganza; his Wharton-educated son Aaditya is the heir apparent

The Mittal method could trigger the sort of consolidation seen in oil majors. While Mittal could be proud of having arrived there first, the issue of survival remains. His last big acquisition, US Inland, was timed around a trough and resulted in troubled times. His present one delivers economies of scale but size matters and has to be serviced.

Traditionally Mittal's advantage has been that his risks are spread over many domestic markets. This allows him to ship out of local downturns. But in a globalised world where regional blocks rule, Mittal's mantra could be challenged. The steel king will have to find new ways to reign.

-with Anil Padmanabhan in New York and Ishara Bhasi in London

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