Britain’s Richest Man and the Multi-Billion-Dollar Battle for a Global Empire
Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey

Cold Steel is the fast-paced and compelling account of the biggest and most hard-fought corporate takeover of recent years. It brings to life the cut and thrust of big business at war and gives an insight into the life of Lakshmi Mittal, the man at the top of the UK’s rich list.

In 2006, the world’s two largest steel producers, Mittal and Arcelor, went head to head in a bitter struggle for market domination, an epic corporate battle that sent shockwaves through the political corridors of Europe, excited the world’s financial markets and transformed the steel industry.

At the heart of the story are two men dubbed the Stallions of Steel. Lakshmi Mittal is a self-made industrialist, born in Sadulpur, an insignificant town in Rajasthan, north-west India, and only three decades ago was paying himself a mere $250 a month. He could hardly have been more different from the mercurial Frenchman Guy Dollé, CEO of Luxembourg-based Arcelor, the world’s largest steel producer by turnover. So, when Mittal called Dollé personally to announce that he was about to launch a bid for Arcelor, a dramatic takeover struggle inevitably ensued, involving billions of dollars of finance, secretive government and shareholder manoeuvrings and accusations of double-dealing – all with global consequences.

Mittal’s drive to consolidate the steel industry into a few major manufacturers had significant ramifications in Britain. Shortly after his battle for Arcelor, the Indian company Tata Steel took over Corus, Europe’s second biggest steel company, which itself had been created through the merger of British Steel and Holland’s Koninklijke Hoogovens.