Lakshmi Mittal, right, chairman of Mittal Steel, the world's largest steelmaker, being welcomed by Josep Borrell, president of the European Parliament, before their meeting on Feb. 7 at the E.U. Parliament headquarters in Brussels. Mittal traveled across several European capitals last week seeking support for his $24 billion bid for Arcelor, the second-largest steel company in the world. (Photo: AFP)

Kolkata: For people of the city he grew up in, the name Lakshmi Narayan Mittal, 55, evokes memories of the lavish wedding of his son Aditya in 1998 at the city's landmark Victoria Memorial grounds where a Bollywood superstar had performed for the guests. The wedding reception of the son of a "local" businessman on the premises of a memorial built for Queen Victoria in 1921 is the eastside story of the rise and rise of the London-based global steel baron whose bid to buy out Arcelor, the world's second-largest steel producer, has made global headlines and exposed the xenophobia of the European Union's politicians and governments who otherwise flaunt their commitment to the free market and globalization.

The mansion-like Mittal House in south Kolkata's upmarket Alipore area has no Mittal living in it now, though members of the family do occasionally visit. But this is the city where his family, like many others from the rich Marwari trading community of Kolkata, had settled in the 1950s and had humble beginnings.

From a nondescript village in western Rajasthan (Sadulpur in Churu district, where he was born in the early 1950s) to the big metropolis of Kolkata to being named in 2005 by Forbes as the third-richest man in the world with a net worth of about $25 billion (after Bill Gates and Warren Buffet), Mittal's journey has been like the dreams woven by Bollywood.

The family of the man who is today the richest non-American in the world moved from Sadulpur village –– where no electricity reached till 1960 –– to Kolkata, then a city of opportunities, for better prospects. And it was there that his father, Mohan Lal Mittal, set up a small steel mill.

Mittal, who was a student of commerce at the prestigious St. Xavier's College in the city, used to work in his father's company after classes. After acquiring his Bachelor of Commerce degree in business and accounting with first class, Mittal joined his father's firm in the early 1970s.

But he soon realized the limited opportunities in India for him and decided to move to Indonesia in 1976, soon after his marriage to his wife Usha. With his father's backing, he founded a steel plant, Ispat Indo, and made the company a success. There began a saga of triumphs for the shrewd businessman.

His success has largely been built on buying up loss-making state-owned mills and quickly turning them around. This he did by cutting costs, exploiting economies of scale, and selling higher-value products into a growing market.

He had one of his most notable successes in the late 1980s, when he turned around a loss-making government-founded steel firm in Trinidad and Tobago which was losing $1 million a day. Within a year, Mittal had doubled the output and made the business profitable –– in effect succeeding where U.S. consultants and German experts had failed.

In 1992, he went to Mexico and bought the country's third-largest steel producer, Sicartsa, for $220 million. This was followed by an acquisition of Siderurgica del Balsas SA at Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico and then more companies in Canada, Germany, Ireland, to name a few.

Mittal followed the same strategy in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, and took over the state-owned blast furnace steel plant in 1995, renaming it Ispat Karmet. It was a risky proposition even by Mittal's standards, workers had not been paid for six months. But within a year it was profitable and production had doubled from 120,000 tons a month to 250,000.

In 1995, two new companies –– Ispat International Ltd. and Ispat Shipping –– were formed to provide technical and commercial services to the group and to meet its growing shipping needs. The same year, he entered Europe by acquiring a steel plant in Hamburg, Germany. With this, the capacity of the group reached 11.2 million tons.

Meanwhile, in 1994, a partition in the family business group transferred all the foreign businesses into Ispat International, under the control of Lakshmi Mittal. The Indian operations remained with his younger brothers, P.K. Mittal and V.K. Mittal. In 1997, Ispat International, the company that controlled the group's steel making operations in Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada and Germany went for listing on the New York and Amsterdam stock exchanges. The Ispat group went on making major acquisitions.

In 2004, Mittal Steel was formed through the merger of Ispat International and LNM Holdings, at the same time Ispat International merged with International Steel Group Inc. (ISG) an Ohio-based company, becoming the world's largest global steel producer with a net worth of over $22 billion. Mittal's industrial empire today has steel-making facilities in 14 countries and stretches from Indonesia to Poland, via Mexico, the U.S., South Africa and Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, Africa, Asia and many European countries.

Mittal has received accolades for his achievements. In 1996, he was awarded the title 'Steel maker of the Year' by New Steel Magazine in the U.S., and he received the Eighth Honorary 'Willy Korf Steel Vision Award,' the highest recognition for worldwide achievement in the steel industry in June 1998. In 2004, he was named the 'European Businessman of the Year' by Fortune magazine.

Mittal is today the richest billionaire not only in Britain but also in Europe. And he is the richest person of Indian origin in the world. He is an active philanthropist and a member of various trusts. The LNM Group Foundation was created in 1998 to support the health and education needs of the poor, particularly in India.

He resides in a palatial home known as Summer Palace, in London, that he bought in 2003 for a residential record of $129 million. On the rare occasions when he is at home, Mittal keeps a disciplined schedule, doing yoga for an hour every day and trying to catch a swim in his indoor pool.

His wife Usha runs the group's Indonesian business and his son Aditya and daughter Vanisha are members of the Board of Directors of Mittal Steel. Aditya, who was constantly by his side during the bid for Arcelor over the last fortnight –– which saw the Mittals traversing from one European capital to another –– is also president and chief financial officer of the group.

Lakshmi Mittal, who derives his first name from the Hindu goddess of wealth, is candid about the fact that his Indian roots –– possibly one of the reasons Arcelor's management is resisting his bid –– has helped him build his steel empire. As he once told Fortune in an interview: "Being an Indian is a real advantage... you learn a lot about bridging differences and reaching compromises when you grow up in a country with over 300 languages and ethnic groups."