Steel tycoon Pramod Mittal, who spent £50million on his daughter's wedding, claims he owes a staggering £2.5 billion - which would make him Britain's biggest bankrupt. He lost his fortune when a financial deal turned sour, claims to have no personal income and just £45 worth of land to his name, near Delhi. The scion of the ultra-rich Mittal steel dynasty says he owns assets of just £110,000 and wants to agree a deal to pay back his creditors just 0.18p for every pound he owes.
Pramod - whose brother Lakshmi is believed to be worth £7bn - was declared bankrupt this summer. The businessman set out his financial situation in an individual voluntary arrangement, in which he claims the loans he originally took out have ballooned dozens of times due to interest payments. He says he now owes £170m to his 94-year-old father, £1.1m to his wife, Sangeeta, £2.4m to their 30-year-old son Divyesh and another £1.1m to his brother-in-law Amit Lohia, 45.
Pramod said: 'I have no personal income. My wife is financially independent from me. We have separate bank accounts and I have very limited information regarding her income.' He estimates his monthly spending at £2,000 to £3,000 and claims his family home belonged to an offshore company in which he had 'no financial interest'. His assets include £7,000 worth of jewellery, several vintage cars and £66,669 worth of shares.
Pramod's current troubles date back 14 years, when he agreed to act as a guarantor for the debts of a coke producer in Bosnia known as GIKIL, a partnership between his Isle of Man-registered Global Steel Holdings and the Bosnian state. In a deal that would prove to be devastating, he and Global Steel Holdings signed an agreement to guarantee GIKIL's debts. GIKIL subsequently failed to make repayments to a steel trading firm in London. That debt was then pursued by a company named Moorgate Industries, which obtained the bankruptcy order.
Pramod also found himself entangled in a probe into organised crime in the formerly war-torn Balkan state of Bosnia. He was arrested last year and released on bail of ¤1m. Despite the enormous sums involved, Pramod's brother Lakshmi could easily afford to bail him out. His Luxembourg-based Arcelor Mittal steel business is valued at just over £9 billion on the stock market, making his holding worth more than £3 billion.
He also owns a 20 per cent stake in Queens Park Rangers football club and has an estimated £6.8 billion hoard, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List. In the past, he helped Pramod. And sources close to Lakshmi deny that the brothers are estranged.
One said: 'If there was any disagreement, it was a long time ago when Lakshmi set out [in business] on his own. But any tensions back then have been smoothed over long ago. 'Lakshmi is the most successful member of the family and he has provided considerable financial support to them for years. He feels for his brother but thinks that he should not step in and his brother should sort this out himself.'
