LONDON: Steel tycoon Lakshmi N Mittal, once the richest man in Britain whose fortune has seen a huge dip in the last year, has now put one of his mansions up for sale.
The 12-room mansion in Palace Green in Kensington in central London had cost Mittal 117 million pounds in 2008 when he bought it from hedge fund tycoon Noam Gottesman, according a report in the Sunday Times.
But it has now been put up on sale for 110 million pounds.
Why is the steel tycoon selling it at a loss?
Mittal bought the mansion for his son Aditya who is the chief financial officer of ArcelorMittal. Since Aditya never moved into the mansion, Mittal has now put it up for sale. The mansion is a four-storey house. It has five bedroom suites and extensive servants’ quarters. Measuring 13,000 square feet, it has been built from red brick and Portland stone in the early 1900s.
Mittal, 62, doesn’t live far from the mansion on sale. He bought his current house at Kensington Palace Gardens for 57million pounds from Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone in 2004.
Called the Taj Mittal and measuring 55,000 square feet, Mittal’s residence contains marble from the same quarry with which the Taj Mahal was built. The house boasts a bejewelled swimming pool and oak-panelled picture gallery and other bells and whistles. After many improvements by Mittal, the value of this house has been pegged in the region of 250 million pounds – making it the most expensive private home in the world.
Not bad for a person who grew up in a crammed house of 20 people in India with no electricity or running water.
Mittal, who has been the richest man in Britain for eight years, dropped to the fourth place this year.
According to the Sunday Times rich list for 2013, the steel magnate is now worth £10,000 million. The Mittal family, whose worth last year was £12,700 million, has suffered the biggest fall in wealth among those in the rich list.
The huge dip in their fortune is caused by the fall in their stake in the steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal. The 40 per cent stake Mittal, 62, and his wife Usha hold in the company has plunged to £5,095 million from £28,000 million at its peak. (News East West)
