Lakshmi Mittal’s brother Pramod Mittal declared bankrupt by UK court

The Insolvency and Companies Court in London has reportedly declared Pramod Mittal, brother of steel industrialist Lakshmi Mittal, bankrupt due to his debt of over £130 million, according to a report in The Times.

Mittal is the head of the supervisory board and co-owns Global Ispat Koksna Industrija Lukavac (GIKIL), a metallurgical coke producing firm in northern Bosnia, which is one of the country’s biggest exporters.

According to The Times report, Mittal went bankrupt due to his role as guarantor in 2006 for the debts of GIKIL. He also owed a debt of $166 million in 2013 to Stemcor, a British steel trading and distribution company.

Stemcor went on to separate its non-trading businesses into a different firm called Moorgate Industries, which was granted the firm that had been given the bankruptcy order, according to the report.

Michael Swangard and Duncan Lockhart, who were lawyers for Moorgate, said to The Times, “Mr Mittal’s bankruptcy represents a significant step forward for Moorgate in what has been a long and arduous process to recover significant monies owed to it by Mr Mittal and several of his connected companies.”

Related news: Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal’s brother held in Bosnia

Meanwhile, Richard Viegas, Mittal’s lawyer, told The Times that a ‘complex corporate matrix’ had led to the bankruptcy order and that he was pursuing an appeal, according to The Indian Express.

According to news agency Reuters, Mittal and his two colleagues were arrested and released in Bosnia after paying off €12.5 million in July last year.

The Indian Express also reported that the release order also sought an ‘insurance’ of €11 million to be deposited into a special account until the proceedings ended.

Mittal had also triggered a storm in social media in 2013 when he had spent over £50 million for his daughter’s wedding.

Furthermore, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in India had also registered a case of cheating and corruption against him in 2017 for reportedly causing a loss of Rs 2,112 crore to the State Trading Corporation (STC).

Mittal repaid that loan in 2019 with the help of his brother, Lakshmi Mittal.