Homecoming costs Lakshmi Mittal $7 billion in year of legal drama

When Lakshmi Mittal, 68, left India for a vacation through Asia more than four decades ago, he didn’t plan to stay in Indonesia and lay the foundation for a steel empire that spans the globe and generated $5 billion in profits last year. Yet that’s what he did, even as a string of efforts to establish himself in India’s steel market failed — until now.

Mittal’s global giant ArcelorMittal is nearing the end of a yearlong battle to break into India with the $5.9-billion acquisition of Essar Steel. The Indian steel firm was put on the block after its lenders approached