STEEL-Y RESOLVE

It's a story straight out of a movie script.

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal has finally brought about the Mittal Steel - Arcelor merger.It took him all of 2006 till now to finally end a saga of offers, rejections, meetings, allegations, etc. an how did he manage it - well, to quote Don Corleone from The Godfather, made immortal on screen by Marlon Brando - "he made them an offer they couldn't refuse".

At $32.5 billion, this is the biggest ever Steel merger. It will be called Arcelor-Mittal and will produce over 100 million metric tonnes of steel every year, which is more than thrice the production of the next biggest company - Nippon Steel (32 mio mt)

This is a highly sweetened offer as compared to Mittal's $22.7 original offer.Despite loads of resistance from the Board, Mittal persisted and it paid off, and how ! !

Let me share with you another piece of information i've gathered over the last 2 days. This is the story of how Mr.Mittal decided to buy Arcelor in the first plac. It was his son, Aditya Mittal's idea. Here is how the conversation goes, in a nutshell.

LNM - Lakshmi Niwas Mittal AM - Aditya Mittal

LNM: Son, Ispat steel has accepted my final offer.
AM: you had to up it considerably from our original offer, right dad ?
LNM: Yes, with Arcelor also bidding, we had to make an offer which was out of their reach !
AM: Dad, lets avoid such bidding wars in the future. Let's just buy whole of Arcelor !
LNM: Good Idea Adi, I ll just talk it out with my M&A guys. Let's buy Arcelor.


Well, the power of money, simply the power of money would enable you make make such outrageous statements - "Dad, let's buy Arcelor" .. as if he's buying the newest bicycle in the market ! !.


Anyways, this is not the end to the Mittal metal saga ... It's only a new beginning.