Customer Reviews

Cold Steel : Britain's Richest Man and the Multi-Billion-Dollar Battle for a Global Empire

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A well-written and efficient book. While 'Barbarians at the Gate' still sets the standard on takeover books, 'Cold Steel' is (pardon the pun) a steal. It is an analysis of the hard fought cross-border takeover that became the artiface of a merger between Mittal Steel and Arcelor. Unlike some of its predecessors in the genre, Bouquet and Ousey take the reader through the various layers of complexity - financial, legal, political, personal, and social - to truly explain how steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal was able to takeover the Luxembourg based Arcelor. A book that wil delight lovers of business journalism and those with an interest in the weavings of big European business and the larger-than-life figures astride it. Only a superficial comment can be made against the book, the authors had not purchased any rights to photographs of the main participants which would have painted a better picture in the mind of the reader. I hope those who are interested in learning about the future impact of emerging BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India & China) economies will read this. A must for those studying business degrees as it introduces the element that academic texts can leave out - the role of personalities and bias that distort the rational decision-making process and create unpredictability.

The book makes for interesting reading but provides a very shallow explanation of the financial procedures/dealings. While reading I also got the impression that the authors are inclined towards the Mittals-a certain bias comes through. Though this could be because of little or no information from participants on the other side...On the whole worth reading but will definitely look forward to a book that delves into this event in more detail.

Cold Steel

This is an excellent book. It is a thrilling read for just entertainment purposes but also serves to educate how a deal as complex as Arcelor-Mittal merger can be executed in a hostile environment.
It includes lots of insights into the public relations aspects but as a minor disadvantage is not too easily understandable on the complex legal and financial structures. This could obviously be caused by the stupidity of this reviewer, but I would have liked that several complicated items are explained in more depth, such as:
- the stichting. It remained unclear to me how exactly can the ultimate separation of the voting power be achieved. For example, is there a way back or the voting rights are gone forever if the trustees do not want to rescind?
- there is no explanation to why did the competitors of Mittal initially support the consolidation of a dominant competitor;
- the revised scheme for Severstal on p.284 contains all the important data for understanding, but if expanded could be more easily comprehendable.

On p. 95, hedge funds are described as "locusts" and having "incestuous" practices:) no problem with that except it sounded as quite out of balance.

As said these were minor drawbacks to a very good business book that I have scribbled full of notes and intend to use several times in the future.