L N Mittal buys ISG to emerge top global steelmaker

LN Mittal has bought over the US-based International Steel Group in a $17.8 billion deal to become the world's largest steel-maker, dethroning the Europen combine, Acelor. Under the deal, the Netherlands-based Ispat International, 77 per cent-owned by Mittal, will buy the Mittal family's LNM Holdings in a reverse take-over by issuing $13.3bn in shares to form a new group called Mittal Steel.

The new Mittal Steel will then pay $42 per share in cash and stock to the shareholders of Ohio-based International Steel Group. Analysts estimate that after this deal, the group's market value would be about $21bn. The deal is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter next year.

Mittal Steel is the largest and 'most globalised' steel company in the world and is getting listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Euronext Amsterdam. L N Mittal's empire now stretches from Poland to Mexico and Indonesia to South Africa with the likelihood of an entry into India.