Mittal: Investing in mining, but not India or China

Lakshmi Mittal, in charge of the world’s largest steel company ArcelorMittal, has no immediate plans to invest in his home country India, “where his recent attempts to build steel plants in Jharkhand and Odisha reportedly face local opposition and wrangles over land acquisition,” reports The Times of India:

“India remains a priority but not for investment. I’m not locating capital to India or China as I don’t see things progressing there. We can’t remain stuck, so we move on. Now our priority is to reduce debt, we sell non-core assets. But we continue to invest in mining and become self-dependent.”

Asked about his strategy to target India and China for growth, he said: “We’ve not succeeded in both countries”.

According to calculations by Bloomberg, Mittal’s wealth has declined more than 10% this year making him one of the worst performer on the Top 40 Billionaires Index.

Mittal’s various investments are now worth only $16.9 billion. At the end of last year his fortune still amounted to more than $20 billion although that was already $10 billion less than in 2010.

The London-based magnate’s wealth topped out $45 billion in 2008, before the global financial crisis hit.

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