ID :
68213
Mon, 06/29/2009 - 14:26
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/68213
The shortlink copeid
Leaving India was my biggest challenge: L N Mittal
New Delhi, June 28 (PTI) It's not the economic slowdown
but leaving India was the biggest challenge for India-born
billionaire Lakshmi Niwas Mittal.
"The biggest crisis or challenge I faced I believe
is when I left India. I did not have any exposure (to) the
global market global situation and I landed up in a country
(Indonesia) I never knew about. That was the biggest
challenge," Mittal, chairman and CEO of steel behemoth
ArcelorMittal, told private broadcaster CNBC TV18.
However, admitting that ArcelorMittal did not anticipate
a crisis of this magnitude, Mittal maintained that the company
acknowledged the slowdown and was the first one to resort to
cost-cutting measures.
Mittal, 58, born in Sadulpur in Rajasthan, parted ways
with his father and brother and took over the international
affairs of the family business and left for Indonesia a little
more than three decades ago. Mittal had founded the Mittal
Steel Company in 1976.
The London-based industrialist, who has received many
international and national honours including the Padma
Vibhushan in January last year, guided his company's strategic
development, culminating in the more than USD 32 billion
merger deal with Arcelor, in 2006.
Facing demand slump on account of the prevailing
economic crisis, ArcelorMittal posted losses in the fourth
quarter of the last fiscal and the first quarter of this
financial year.
The company also decided to go slow on greenfield
expansions, mergers and acquisitions across the globe.
However, Mittal says ArcelorMittal is "bullish" about
India as it is in the process of setting up
a 12-million-tonne-per-annum steel plant each in Jharkhand and
Chhattisgarh at an estimated investment of Rs 1-lakh crore,
apart from making a foray in the oil and gas sector in the
country.
Mittal's statement on his "challenges" comes in the wake
of leading economists and business tycoons dubbing the present
economic crisis as even worse than "The Great Depression" of
the 1930s and anticipating that the global economy will not
recover from the jolt in the near term.
In 2008, ArcelorMittal had revenues of USD 124.9 billion
and crude steel production of 103.3 million tonnes,
representing approximately 10 per cent of world steel output.
PTI
but leaving India was the biggest challenge for India-born
billionaire Lakshmi Niwas Mittal.
"The biggest crisis or challenge I faced I believe
is when I left India. I did not have any exposure (to) the
global market global situation and I landed up in a country
(Indonesia) I never knew about. That was the biggest
challenge," Mittal, chairman and CEO of steel behemoth
ArcelorMittal, told private broadcaster CNBC TV18.
However, admitting that ArcelorMittal did not anticipate
a crisis of this magnitude, Mittal maintained that the company
acknowledged the slowdown and was the first one to resort to
cost-cutting measures.
Mittal, 58, born in Sadulpur in Rajasthan, parted ways
with his father and brother and took over the international
affairs of the family business and left for Indonesia a little
more than three decades ago. Mittal had founded the Mittal
Steel Company in 1976.
The London-based industrialist, who has received many
international and national honours including the Padma
Vibhushan in January last year, guided his company's strategic
development, culminating in the more than USD 32 billion
merger deal with Arcelor, in 2006.
Facing demand slump on account of the prevailing
economic crisis, ArcelorMittal posted losses in the fourth
quarter of the last fiscal and the first quarter of this
financial year.
The company also decided to go slow on greenfield
expansions, mergers and acquisitions across the globe.
However, Mittal says ArcelorMittal is "bullish" about
India as it is in the process of setting up
a 12-million-tonne-per-annum steel plant each in Jharkhand and
Chhattisgarh at an estimated investment of Rs 1-lakh crore,
apart from making a foray in the oil and gas sector in the
country.
Mittal's statement on his "challenges" comes in the wake
of leading economists and business tycoons dubbing the present
economic crisis as even worse than "The Great Depression" of
the 1930s and anticipating that the global economy will not
recover from the jolt in the near term.
In 2008, ArcelorMittal had revenues of USD 124.9 billion
and crude steel production of 103.3 million tonnes,
representing approximately 10 per cent of world steel output.
PTI
