Lakshmi Mittal Talkasia Transript    
世界钢铁大王拉克希米·米塔尔访谈录

SB: Satindra Bindra    LM: Lakshmi Mittal

Hello, I'm Satindra Bindra in India's business capital Mumbai. With me today is a man many people call the emperor of steel, multi billionaire and global tycoon Lakshmi Mittal. This is Talk Asia!

Lakshmi Mittal grew up in Western India in a home without electricity or running water. But earlier this year in a 34 billion dollar deal, his company Mittal steel merged with European steel company Arcelor to create the world's largest steel company. 今年初，米塔尔公司完成了一项340亿美元的交易，兼并了欧洲钢铁公司阿塞罗，成就了世界最大的钢铁公司。

56 year old Mittal now has a personal fortune of 27 billion dollars, making him the worlds 5th richest man.56岁的米塔尔拥有270亿美元的个人资产，位居世界首富第五位。

SB: Lakshmi Mittal welcome to Talk Asia.

LM: Thank you.

SB: You know you described the merger process with Arcelor, the largest steel company in Europe, as a "boxing match". Why did you describe it that way?

LM: It had several rounds, and this process required that we win every round. And there were many rounds where it was kind of a draw because no side was winning. There was a stalemate. There was a round where we almost lost. And we were almost knocked out when Arcelor brought in Severstal on the table.

SB: This was the Russian company?

LM: That was the Russian company. And we felt that was a knockout. And to recover from this knockout, and to start fighting again, is like a boxing match. And finally we knocked them out and the merger has been successful.

SB: Were you scared of being knocked out, perhaps even quite early? Because I remember when I last met you, you were so tense.

LM: I remember when I met you in February, I was really, really stressed, because it was the beginning of this match. And I heard and I listened to various emotional comments from different sites, politicians, company, the management.

SB: Of Arcelor?

LM: Of Arcelor. And that really was the beginning of the discussions, the beginning of the match. We heard comments from different governments which were not favored to us. And we saw the reaction. So, all of this were the stressful moments in the beginning of this fight.

SB: Refresh our memory. What did these governments say and how did you take it? Because again, to go back to February, even you were a little emotional, were you not?

LM: I was emotional when I heard negative comments from these governments. Some media call it racist comments. But personally I did not experience it. But what I was reading at that time was not pleasing and I was afraid that because of those comments we would not succeed in this merger attempt. Fortunately as we moved forward in the process, everyone realized that those comments were not warr

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