Laxmi Niwas Mittal said he is "pleasantly surprised" at how complementary the $34.3 billion merger of Mittal Steel with Arcelor has proved to be.In an interview to Financial Times, Mittal said that though he is not the CEO of the merged entity, he would play a role in setting future strategy and looking at growth opportunities.Mittal, executive chairman of Arcelor-Mittal, said the takeover puts the world's largest steel company ahead of the competition by many years. "We are a new benchmark for the industry, and I'd like to see other players move forward as well through their own consolidation efforts," he said."I have been pleasantly surprised at how complementary Mittal Steel and Arcelor have turned out to be. I have now met a lot of top Arcelor managers - about 35 in total - and I have been very impressed with nearly all of them," he said.The NRI entrepreneur had earlier this year succeeded in merging Luxembourg-based Arcelor with his company after a five-month battle to create an empire that employs 3,20,000 people and produces more than 110 million tonne of steel - nearly 10% of the global steel output.As part of the merger, about 35 teams of managers from the two companies have started working together, he said, adding the teams are under pressure to deliver results.
