Lakshmi Mittal's wealth up at $26.5 billion

NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal's hostile bid to take over Luxembourg-based Arcelor may not have materialised so far but his effort has pushed up his fortune by £2.281 billion ($4.06 billion) since the bid, the Sunrise Rich List 2006 has revealed.

According to the list, the Mittal family stake, a week after the bid, was worth £12.6 billion ($22.45 billion), and it has shot up to £14.881 billion ($26.517 billion), showing that investors like what Mittal wants to achieve in the global steel market.

The £12.7 billion ($22.63 billion) hostile bid was rejected by the Arcelor management while the French and Luxembourg governments were also hostile.

Philip Beresford is the author of this year's Rich List for the Sunrise Radio which showed the combined wealth of the top 300 Asian multi-millionaires in Britain has risen by 42.6 per cent since last year to £35.5 billion ($63.262 billion).

The fortune of Hinduja brothers, Gopichand, 66 and Srichand,70, shot up from £2.1 billion ($3.742 billion) last year to £3.6 billion ($6.415 billion) this year as 'many doors that were previously closed to them were now opening after they were cleared in the Bofors affairs by the New Delhi High Court in June 2005,' Beresford told reporters on Tuesday.

"As a result, they have now gone into two new areas: insurance and real estate development," he said.

According to Beresford, the Caparo Group, headed by Lord Swraj Paul, is looking to make hefty investments in the booming Indian economy. "It will be a case of coming home for founder Lord Paul," he observed.

The NRI industrialist and the family of the Caparo Group, figure eighth in the Rich List.