Mittal: Confident

London, March 20: Arcelor will be his “in three months’ time”, a confident Lakshmi Mittal predicted yesterday.

Wearing an open-necked shirt and with head phones strapped on, this was a new, smart and casual Mittal who sat in a BBC studio yesterday and dealt deftly with tricky questions.

Once upon a time, the shy steel tycoon avoided the media, preferring a retinue of PR companies to do the job for him.

However, ever since his first press conference in London at the headquarters of Bafta in January to announce his ?12.67-billion bid for Arcelor, he has been behaving like a tiger cub that has tasted human blood for the first time. He now courts the British media, which is proving to be remarkably sympathetic towards his fight with the French over Arcelor.

On Radio Five Live, Mittal argued the case for consolidation of the steel industry and for the merger of Mittal Steel ? in which he and his family control 88 per cent of the shares ? and Arcelor.

The merger, if agreed, would create a global powerhouse with a market value of ?22.4 billion, revenues of almost ?40 billion and a workforce of 3,20,000 people.

It would be the world’s first steel giant capable of producing more than 100 million tonnes a year, although Mittal said he had set his sights on a production of 200 to 250 million tonnes a year. He had ambitions in India, he indicated.

Asked if there was a Plan B if his bid for Arcelor did not come off, Mittal would not countenance failure.

“I am confident we will win ? I am not even thinking beyond that,” he responded. “I am sure shareholders will make the right decision because they like this in the steel industry.”

Asked if he would own Arcelor within a year, he was supremely confident ? perhaps a little over-optimistic ? and replied: “Much before that. If you look at our timetable, we should be completing this transaction in three months’ time.”

He also insisted there was nothing “fishy” about the ?2 million he had donated to the Labour Party.

Mittal said he had not been approached for a loan, secret or otherwise.

As for his own donation, he said, “It is not right to regard it as fishy. If you are working in a country, if you have businesses in a country and are living in a country, you have to decide your allegiance to a political party and support them because all political parties need help from business.”

The British government has already backed Mittal by warning its French and other European counterparts not to interfere in Mittal Steel’s bid for Arcelor.

Mittal’s name has been mentioned as a possible candidate for a peerage, but he has not been offered one yet by Prime Minister Tony Blair.

It is possible that as an Indian national, his eligibility for a peerage is also unclear (his office believes he qualifies, but others disagree).

He would continue to support the Labour Party even when Blair stepped down, he added.

“We would like to continue to support the Labour Party,” he said. “We believe in them and I am sure that Prime Minister Tony Blair will continue for a long time.”

He went on: “I have been supporting the Labour Party since I came to London (in 1995). I like Labour policies and I like Tony Blair for what he has been doing as a Prime Minister and as an international leader. I support him and will continue to support him.”

There has been a controversy over political donations, which has led to four people having their nominations for peerages blocked by the House of Lords Appointments Commission.