Usha gets strategic hold in Mittal Steel

Billionaire Lakshmi Mittal will trust none other than his better half Usha to run the world's largest steel company in the absence of the company directors.

The shareholders of Mittal Steel overwhelmingly supported the proposal to designate Usha Mittal to this position at an annual general meeting (AGM) held in Amsterdam yesterday. Mittal Steel had acquired its closest rival Arcelor last year for over $33 billion and the new entity would soon be renamed as Arcelor-Mittal.

"The resolution was approved by 97 per cent of the votes cast by shareholders," Mittal Steel said in a regulatory filing.

The board had proposed to designate Usha Mittal as the person referred to in "Article 23 of Articles of Association of the company".

According to the article of association, such a person is "temporarily responsible for the management of the company in case all members of the board of directors are prevented from acting or are permanently absent".

The company had said in its proposal that Usha Mittal has more than 15 years experience in steel and related industries and was a director of the company from its inception until March 16, 2001.

According to the company's annual report for 2006, Lakshmi and Usha Mittal owned 87.47 per cent of Mittal Steel's shares, representing 98.32 per cent of its voting rights.

Joseph Kinsch is currently the chairman and Lakshmi Mittal is the president of the board. Mittal's daughter Vanisha Mittal is also one of the directors.

At the AGM, the shareholders also approved a proposal to ratify the board's decision to appoint Lakshmi Mittal as the chief executive officer of the company as of November 5, 2006.

The Mittal family abstained during the voting. The resolution was approved by 98.2 per cent of the votes cast by the other shareholders. The company had said in November 2006 that controlling shareholder would abstain from voting on his appointment.

Addressing the shareholders at the meeting, the chairman and CEO said, "Since last year's merger, the integration of our companies has gone forward at a fast pace and operational results have surpassed our expectations."

This was the first AGM attended by both, former shareholders of Arcelor and shareholders of Mittal Steel.

Arcelor-Mittal is the world's leading steel company with 320,000 employees in more than 60 countries.

It had combined revenues of $88.6 billion in 2006, with a crude steel production of 118 million tonnes, representing around 10 per cent of the world steel output.

The shareholders would meet again at the company's extraordinary meeting later this year to approve the next step in the merger process.

Besides other proposals, the shareholders also approved the annual accounts for FY 2006, a proposal to continue to pay a quarterly dividend of 32 cents a share and the reappointment of Deloitte Accountants as its registered accountant.