Lakshmi Mittal, amongst India’s most celebrated NRIs, retained his number one slot in UK’s annual rich list, for the 3rd consecutive year. His personal wealth went up by 29% after the historic deal he struck with Arcelor SA in 2006.
Mittal, at age 56, has a personal fortune of GBP 14,881 million according to the list compiled by the Sunday Times.
The gap between him and 1st runner up Roman Abramovich has narrowed
down since 2005 to just over GBP 4 billion. Leaping into the
limelight with the Arcelor deal, Mittal's wealth is based on
the world's largest steelmaking company, Mittal Steel, which
also has stakes in steel mills in China and the Ukraine.
Mittal Steel is quoted on the American and Dutch stock markets
and the Mittal family and trusts hold 88% of its stocks. The
family stake is prized at GBP12.6 billion, while other assets
and interests add up to GBP14.881 billion.
Interestingly, Lakshmi Mittal is also the world’s 5th wealthiest individual, in the league of Bill Gates, Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim, American investor Warren Buffet and Swede Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad.
Amongst the top 10 in the list are also NRI industrialists Srichand and Gopichand Hinduja at 7th position with a wealth of GBP 3,600 million.
The Hinduja brothers have a stake in global finance, telecommunications,
film and oil.
The NRI success story does not stop here.
The Sunday Times has
a top 10 Newcomers List too, in which 3 Indians figure - Anurag Dikshit, with GBP 1,704 million at 3rd rank, Naresh Goyal at GBP 780 million at 7th rank, and Vikrant Bhargava with assets of GBP 592 million at 10th rank.
Apart from Goyal who runs an airline, Anurag and Vikrant have
struck it rich with software for internet gambling.
The annual Sunday Times Rich List outlines the 1,000 richest
people and families in the UK and is based on identifiable wealth
- land, property, and miscellaneous assets such as art and racehorses,
or noteworthy shares in publicly listed companies, and excludes
bank accounts.
