Mittal, Pandit, Sarin, Nooyi-led firms lose over $60 bn

Companies led by the four most prominent Indian faces in World Inc -- Lakshmi Mittal, Vikram Pandit, Arun Sarin and Indra Nooyi -- have been battered in the ongoing global stock market turmoil, with collective losses to the extent of over USD60 billion in 2008 so far.

The companies run by these four are leaders in their respective industries, but so seem the losses suffered by them on the bourses.

Mittal-led ArcelorMittal is the largest steel maker worldwide, Pandit-run Citigroup is the world's biggest lender, Sarin-headed Vodafone is Europe's largest mobile firm and Nooyi-led PepsiCo figures among the top two soft drink firms.

Collectively, total market value of Citigroup, PepsiCo, ArcelorMittal and Vodafone has dropped to 515.1 billion dollars from 575.6 billion dollars at the end of 2007.

The latest figures are based on their share prices on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), where all the four are listed, as of February 8, the last trading day.

Interestingly, the cumulative loss of the four global giants is equivalent to an amount that is more than half the loss suffered by all the Indian companies in the same period.

The total market value of over 4,000 Indian companies has dropped by close to 110 billion dollars so far in 2008.

Among the four, PepsiCo has seen its market cap plunging by a lowest 9.8 billion dollars, while Vodafone has suffered the biggest loss of 18.7 billion dollars in absolute terms.

ArcelorMittal, whose huge market capitalisation made Lakhsmi Mittal the world's richest Indian in November last year with a net worth of 51 billion dollars, has seen its market capitalisation taking a dip of about 15 billion dollars since the beginning of 2008.