By now, the richest Indian, Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, has proved beyond doubt that he likes everything king size, be it at work or play. So, while his recent Arcelor deal makes him the world's undisputed steel czar, his £57-million (Rs 484.5-crore) Kensington Garden 'pad', with 12 bedrooms and space to park 20 cars, and now a $200-million (Rs 920-crore) yacht ordered from a German shipbuilder, should reinforce his position as the new 'cool' global tycoon. To be sure, it's not the first time the 56-year-old Mittal is in the market for a luxury yacht. (He already owns one, which is often used by son Aditya.) Last year, he was reportedly shown Larry Ellison's Rising Sun, but didn't bite. Not surprising at all. Did they really expect Mittal to buy a pre-owned yacht? Mittal's new toy isn't due for delivery until 2009, but the global glam-set must be waiting with bated breath for an invitation for a ride.

Keeping Patience

Don't tell this to L.N. Mittal, but being big doesn't always help. Just ask Akhil Gupta (left) and Rajeev Gupta, India heads, respectively, of private equity giants Blackstone and Carlyle. More than 13 months after their India debut, the firms are still waiting to do a deal that matches their size. There's buzz about Blackstone's Gupta weighing a $50-million investment in a Pune-based pharma company, but the man won't comment. "We considered 95 per cent of the deals that happened in India past year, but found none that would fulfil our criteria," says the 53-year-old, former Reliance Industries executive. Meanwhile, Carlyle's Gupta, 48, who has done a $20-million deal (Claris Lifesciences), has more money coming into his account thanks to Carlyle's new $668-million Asia fund that will also invest in India. "Valuations were quite prohibitive in the last couple of months, but we expect the scenario to improve now," says the former DSP Merrill dealmaker. Frustrated maybe, hopeless not.

Thanks So Much, Gopi

This was meant to be a hi-profile dealmaker's shot at building a tidy nest egg for himself. But Munesh Khanna, 44, will have to wait for another day. His widely reported shift from nm Rothschild India to Enam Financial Consultants has ended after just an eight-month run. Khanna, who spent 17 long years at Arthur Andersen, says he's leaving for "personal reasons". "Certain events in my life made me do a rethink on whether I was doing what I really wanted to do with my time," he says. "I just wanted to clear the canvas and start all over again." Nobody's yet saying that Khanna is taking the fall for G.R. Gopinath-owned Air Deccan's poor IPO (initial public offering), which was supposed to be the suave dealmaker's first big assignment at Enam. But it does seem the fickle stock market has claimed a (good) head.

The Next Big Thing

Dan Sandhu was travelling abroad when he got a call from a worried friend enquiring if his Gurgaon-based BPO, Vertex, was up for sale. As it turned out, that was a false alarm, but the man who set up the British BPO from scratch four years ago is moving on. Sandhu, 36, has become the non-Executive Chairman of Vertex and "would be looking at business interests outside the company". And for the time being he's staying put in India and not going back home to the UK. Exceptionally active in the local tech circuit for an expat, Sandhu has his hands full. Apart from continuing to mentor the young team at Vertex, he's part of the Band of Angels, a group of successful entrepreneurs and professionals who have taken it upon themselves to help others. "I may put in my own money in some ventures too," he says. So, clearly, this is no retirement.

Pressure Tactics

Purnendu Chatterjee's year-old feud with the West Bengal government over Haldia Petrochemicals continues to take twists and turns. The NRI Chatterjee, who owns 59.9 per cent in Haldia, has now accused the state government of not getting approval from the company's board for transfer of its 7.33 per cent stake to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), and transferring the shares before even encashing the buyer's cheque of Rs 150 crore. Simultaneously, Chatterjee, 53, has kept Track II diplomacy open and is still looking for an amicable solution. This, in turn, will give him management control and possibly a second shot at Basell, a company he almost acquired along with his friend and Russian oil baron, Leonard Blavatnik.

Now He's Talking

A little over a year after he took over as the president at HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar, 45, seems to have got the IT company primed for big outsourcing deals. According to reports, HCL has bagged a 10-year, $550-600-million (Rs 2,530-2,760-crore) deal from Skandia, a UK-based insurance company acquired late last year by South African giant Old Mutual. Apparently, TCS was in the running too, but HCL Tech managed to bag what is easily the biggest outsourcing deal so far in India. "HCL has adopted and articulated a multi-service, multi-million dollar client engagement strategy. However, as a policy, we do not respond to speculations on client wins," was Nayar's official response. Translated into English that means he said he would get the big deals in, and he's getting them. Watch this man.

-Contributed by Aman Malik, Archna Shukla, Shivani Lath, Amit Mukherjee,
Ritwik Mukherjee and R. Sridharan