The New Nation - Internet Edition

PTI, London

After braving the global financial crisis for months, the creaks are getting wider in the market value of steel empire created by the world's richest Indian Lakshmi Mittal, with about USD 50 billion knocked off from the net worth of Non-Resident Indian (N.R.I.) business tycoon himself.

While the U.S. and European markets started their downslide way back in August-September last year, ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker, continued to gain value till about five months ago and its share price scaled a life-time high of 104.77 dollars on June 5 at the U.S. bourses. However, the valuation has now dipped to below the one- fourth of its record high level and the company's shares, which are listed at N.Y.S.E. as well as on some European bourses, are currently trading near 25 dollars level. During these five months, the company's market capitalisation has also plummeted to 37.3 billion dollars, from a high of over 150 billion dollars. Accordingly, the net worth of Lakshmi Mittal, who along with his family members hold a 43.02 percent equity, has also dipped to just about 16 billion dollars from as high as about 66 billion dollars on June 5. According to the company's latest shareholding data, the Mittal family owns 623.285 million shares of the company, while the remaining holding is in the form of public holding and treasury shares.

The value of non-promoter shares has also plunged sharply from about 85 billion dollars to about 20 billion dollars and some analysts expect that Mittal and the company's top management team could have to brave queries from shareholders on this front when they meet next week after announcement of the company's third quarter results on November 5. ArcelorMittal's share price has lost over three-fourth of its value from its high in early June, amid concerns that the company was cutting down its production in wake of prevailing crisis in the global markets.

There has been reports that ArcelorMittal was cutting production by as much as 15 percent from the previous year's levels because of weakening demand.

The sharp plunge in ArcelorMittal's valuation and the consequent impact on Mittal's net worth could also affect the London-based N.R.I. steel tycoon's rank in the annual list of richest Indians compiled by U.S. business magazine Forbes, which is expected to release its latest ranking later this month. In last year's list, published on November 15, 2007, Mittal was ranked as the richest Indian with a wealth size of 51 billion dollars-which was nearly double of the previous year figure. Later in March this year, Forbes ranked Mittal as the fourth richest person across the world in its annual list of the world's richest billionaires, with a net worth of 45 billion dollars. In September, the U.S. magazine conferred Mittal with the third Forbes Lifetime Achievement Award, which honours heroes of entrepreneurial capitalism and free enterprise. Born in Rajasthan in India, Mittal founded Mittal Steel Company (formerly L.N.M. Group) in 1976. It later acquired numerous steel companies around the world, including the International Steel Group in the U.S., to become the world's largest steel producer following merger with Arcelor in 2006. In 2007, it had revenues of 105.2 billion dollars and crude steel production of 116 million tonnes, representing 10 per cent of total world steel output.

ArcelorMittal, which has over 3,20,000 employees in more than 60 countries, is listed in New York, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg and also on the Spanish bourses of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid and Valencia.