Ispat is nothing if not quirky. Run by a man from Calcutta, the company is incorporated in the Netherlands and has its headquarters in London. It produces steel in Europe, as well as in North and South America, and uses its own ocean-going fleet to ship goods to customers all over the world.

The nub of Mittal’s strategy? He cheaply buys up struggling state-owned mills that budget-minded governments no longer want and squeezes greater productivity out of them by spending on new technology and sending in competent private-sector management. Mittal has earned a formidable reputation as a dealmaker extraordinaire - as he set about acquiring steelworks in Canada, Ireland, Germany, Mexico and Trinidad.

He bought the troubled Irish Steel for one token Irish punt, although he agreed to pay off millions in back debt. He snagged Mexico’s loss-making Sicarsta mills in 1992 for $220 million; the Mexican government having built it for $2 billion less than a decade before. Nor can you accuse Mittal of not being sufficiently hands on – having bought Sicarsta he moved to Mexico for nearly six months, living on-site and personally developing a business plan to make the division profitable.

The Kazakhstan operation is one of the largest single-site integrated steel plants in the world. THE COUNTRY’S LARGEST SINGLE EMPLOYER IS located on the banks of the river Nura, (DELETE AND..) covers about 5,000 hectares and has a steel making capacity of 6.3 million tonnes per annum. Access to Kazakhstan’s abundant supplies of raw materials such as coal, iron ore and energy P.T. Ispat Indo was the first member of the LNM Group – established by Mittal in Indonesia in 1976. He was just 21 years old at the time. The company was set up as a 60,000 tpa greenfield project, for rolling. Today, Ispat Indo has an annual production capacity in excess of 600,000 tonnes.

WITHIN THE GLOBAL STEEL INDUSTRY Mittal’s greatest coup, however, came in March of last year, when, after years of attempting to enter the US market, he finally acquired Inland Steel Co, one of the oldest and proudest integrated steel companies in the United States. The Inland acquisition called for Ispat to pay $1.4 BILLION for Inland’s common and preferred shares, as well as THE ASUSMPTION OF THE INLAND debt. In one bound he pushed himself into the industry’s top table and created the first truly global steel company, in addition to acquiring a central role in the massive US steel market.

"At any time I am likely to be working on two or three acquisitions", the Indian entrepreneur affirms. "You have to have two or three options because you can never be sure which one is going to work out. If I’ve decided something, I tend to get it done. I have an aggressive approach, but I like to believe that I’m a reasonable negotiator."

Though he is softly spoken and keeps a relatively low profile, Mr. Mittal threw an extravagant party at his home after moving to London a couple of years ago. To some in the community it was his way of signalling that he had arrived – both in Britain and financially. The Indian High Commissioner entered an appearance and many other prominent Asians too.

Born in Sadulpur in Rajastan, India, on June 15^th 1950 – Mittal remains an Indian citizen. Educated at the prestigious St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta, he went on to graduate from the City of Joy’s University – coming first in his Bachelor of Commerce degree in business and accounting.

He might well like to keep a low profile, but his astonishing success in the steel industry has meant that he has become wildly – some would say flamboyantly - rich. He owns a ritzy £6 million home (the postman delivering mail to the "Summer Palace") in London’s Bishop’s Avenue – Millionaire’s Row as it is more popularly known – where neighbours include the Sultan of Brunei and King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.

On the rare occasions when he is not travelling the world and 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. He is married to USHA Mittal – and the couple have two children – Aditya, a son, and a daughter, Vanisha, EIGHTEEN. TWENTY THREE year old Aditya has recently become the third generation of Mittals to work in the family business. IN DECEMBER OF LAST YEAR HE MARRIED MEGHA PATAUDIA, WHOM HE MET WHEN HE WAS AT WHARTON BUSINESS SCHOOL IN THE UNITED STATES.

Mittal remains the majority owner of all operations – although a minority interest in Ispat International was sold to the public in 1997 in an offering that generated heavy interest in both the New York and Amsterdam markets – something almost unheard of in the normally sleepy steel industry. In fact Ispat’s first IPO in the August of 1979 was eight times oversubscribed.

He might well be just FORTY EIGHT years of age, but Mittal already has over three decades of experience in the steel industry – and knows as much about running a mill as anyone you are ever likely to meet. Described by some as the Carnegie of Calcutta, Mittal goes out of his way to avoid the social whirl of Britain’s Asian community. Last year, the Eastern Eye, an English-language newspaper for Britain’s Asian community, threw a party to celebrate its publication of the country’s 100 richest Asians – topped by Mr. Mittal, of course, whose net worth was estimated about £1.8 billion. Mr. Mittal skipped the party, even though the Prime Minister was scheduled to attend. No need to hang around in hope of a hank shake and a friendly smile from Mr. Blair – Mittal has already met him several times privately in the past.

"He was anxious to meet the Asian community here", says Gulam Noon, chairman of the Asian Business Association. The party was held outside under a huge marquee, with Indian food and music by a West Indian band. What I find very nice is that although the man has a lot of money, he’s so simple. He’s not a brash young man who acts like he’s conquered Mount Everest."

Since 1978 Mittal has lived away from the land of the Himalayas. "I always believed in doing something unique, and I felt the opportunities for me in India were limited. Being Indian is a real advantage if you are doing business in a lot of different countries. You learn a lot about bridging differences and reaching compromises when you grow up in a country with over 300 languages and ethnic groups."

He also runs Ispat with the frugality and dedication he learned early in life. The village where he was born, in India’s western Rajasthan desert, didn’t have electric power until the 1960s. And traditional Indian business practices still guide Mittal’s global empire. The most important is the century old Partha accounting practice, by which all costs are calculated at the end of each working day. "I tell my managers that I expect Partha-style accounts each day. They say I am insane, but I tell them that’s what you have to do if you want to work for Ispat."

Ironically Ispat International does no business in India. "It is one of my biggest disappointments. As an Indian I feel I really ought to be doing something for my country." Not surprisingly, he does, having BECOME an active philanthropist and a member of various trusts. The LNM Group Foundation was created in 1998 to support health and education needs of the poor, particularly in India. The group is a significant contributor to local community and welfare activities for employees in all the countries in which it operates, including Kazakhstan, where it also supplies heating and electricity to the City of Temirtau. The LNM Group Scholarship Program with the London School of Economics sponsors post-graduate students from countries where the Group has steelmaking operations. Mittal also sits on the Advisory Boards of the Wharton and Kellogg Schools of Management in the United States.

"Because India is important to me and I feel close to India – we are going to continue to work there", Mittal asserts, which means that you can rest assured it will be done. "I have a particular interest in eye projects – and it is my intention to set up eye camps throughout Rajastan, which is my home state. That’s something which we are working on right now."

"My roots in Calcutta are extremely important to me. That’s why I returned there when my son got married in December of last year – because that for me is home. I like to refer to myself as a Calcutta chele – that mean’s boy in Bengali. And that’s how I like to see myself – as a Calcutta kid at heart."

The President of India, His Excellency K. R. Narayanan, recently inaugurated Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s first computer centre in Calcutta. The institution was set up with a donation of £75,000 from Mittal.

Although he has become one of the world’s leading philanthropists, DELETE THE WORD ‘BUT’ do not be lulled into thinking that Mr. Mittal is a soft touch. Quite the contrary. A recent Goldman Sachs Global Research CONCLUDED that "..whilst Mr. Mittal is intensely aware of all relevant issues affecting the company, he does not tolerate anything other than first-rate performance."

"I heard the same buzz about Ispat that I heard about Nucor in the 1980s", reports Lou Schorsch, a steel-industry consultant with McKinsey & Co. And, strange though it may seem, Kenneth Iverson, the legendary chairman of Nucor Corp – the biggest success story in an otherwise dismal generation of U.S. steelmaking, happens to agree: "Ispat controls costs very closely – and Mr. Mittal is a very tough businessman."

Credit Suisse’s European Equity Research centre in Holland identified several factors that explain Ispat’s phenomenal success. They included low capital and operating costs, high profitability, internal and market growth, growth through acquisitions and globalism. And there can no be no doubting that whilst Nucor was the undoubted mould-breaker of the 1980s, Ispat has been the mould-breaker of the 1990s. The Credit Suisse report concluded that if the company were able to replicate its remarkable track record in recent years, "we would not be surprised to see it emerge by 2005 as the largest steel producer in the world." Music to the ears of Mittal – and precisely what’s on his own agenda.

"Ispat does so well because Mittal is a master of change", says Alan Coast, London-based steel analyst with Merrill Lynch. "He is very good at making deals and getting performance out of the companies he has acquired. And being sole owner makes him more fleet of foot than the old, entrenched companies."

"I am an Indian and it is true that Indians are often quite entrepreneurial", Mittal declares. "Especially those of us who leave India – we are often looking for new opportunities – fired with ambition and determined to be successful. But I do not take the view that the spirit of enterprise is on the wane among Britain’s Asians. Not at all. Today we are seeing a new set of young Indian entrepreneurs emerge – you only need to take a look at the Sunday Times Rich List – they are obviously doing very well and are not at all complacent to any degree."

Domestic producers have traditionally dominated the steel industry. GovernmentS defended national champions with trade barriers and state aid, notably in Europe. Steelmakers had little incentive to compete aggressively on price. But in the past 20 years, the industry has been transformed by the growth of steel production in developing countries, particularly in Asia, and the rapid globalisation of business for the steel industry’s main customers - car companies for the most part. Moreover, the development of electric-arc minimills (flexible small-scale production units) has undermined the dominance of large-scale integrated steelworks and reduced entry barriers into the industry. New producers emerged, putting traditional mills under pressure to cut costs and adapt. Mittal was one of the first to spot this trend – a good decade ahead of his competitors.

Mittal’s own marketing men have come up with a slogan dubbing the conglomerate as the steelmaker of the next millennium – hype with which its difficult to take issue given their track record. In fact Credit Suisse’s European Equity Research Centre recently came up with the mother-of-all-marketing slogans - that Ispat International was "arguably the best steel company on the planet", a phrase which many advertising and PR companies would have balked at.

"I’m like to think of myself as the Bill Gates of India", Mittal says with a thinly disguised grin on his face. "I am very driven. And probably more so now than ever before. Emerged, emerging or submerging markets – they all represent opportunity to me".

Steel makers of the world please note.