The Mittal-Arcelor saga started earlier this year. On January 27, LN Mittal made an unsolicited USD 22.7 billion bid for Arcelor, the biggest steel manufacturer in the world. But Arcelor rejected that bid on the pretext that the two companies did not share a strategic vision.

Almost a fortnight later, Arcelor announced 85% dividend to fend off Mittal's offer. And it did not stop there. On April 4, beefing up its defenses further, Arcelor announced a special payment of over USD 6 billion to its shareholders. It also moved its recently acquired Dofasco into an independent foundation.

Arcelor then mustered the support of its shareholders, as they re-elected the board on April 28.

But Mittal was in no mood to give up. He formally launched a hostile takeover bid on May 18. And the very next day, he upped the offer by 34%; the new deal now valued at USD 32.90 billion.

But Arcelor was not impressed. It spurned Mittal's continuous offers by bringing in a white knight in the form of SeverStal for a merger. It then called for a shareholders meet on June 28, to decide between the two offers.

In the meantime, the European Commission approved the Mittal-Arcelor merger on June 6. But on June 20, in a bid to woo Arcelor, Severstal revised the terms of its merger proposal, saying that majority owner Alexei Mordashov would settle for 25% of the new group rather than the initially proposed 32.3% and raised its offer by about EUR 2 billion.

Finally, on June 23, the two kingpins of steel decided to meet on June 25 to have a final word over the deal. It was a meeting of big expectations that ended with a positive note, with Mittal's efforts bearing fruit.