Cold Steel is a gripping read
Filed Under (Business Books) by Rajesh Kumar on 23-06-2009
I am reading (once again) a book by Tim Bouquet and Byron Ousey titled Cold Steel which actually covers the Mittal pursuit of Arcelor few years back. The coming together of Arcelor and Mittal resulted in formation of world’s largest steel making company, ArcelorMittal.
The Mittals (Lakshmi and Aditya) were chasing an M&A target that did not see a point in the merger. The CEO was Guy Dolle, who was actually pursuing Dofosco, to gain a scale and not become an Mittal target.
Some very interesting facts. The two parties were advised by two top shot M&A advisors. One worked for Goldman Sachs and went by as Yoel and advised the Mittals, and his counterpart in Arcelor camp was Michael, who worked for Morgan Stanley. Michael Zaoui and Yoel Zaoui were real brothers!
The book is very well researched and written like a story. You feel like you are watching things on the screen. Only one complaint – periodically you come back to real life! A must read!!
