Agency report
 
New Delhi, Feb 23: Observing that there was nothing "unethical" about steel magnate L N Mittal’s bid of Arcelor which was purely a business issue, NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul on Wednesday night said governments should get out of it.

"Governments do not decide mergers and acquisitions. The sale of shares is strictly a matter between shareholders and the buyer," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function to launch the South Asia Regional Office of the University of Wolverhampton in New Delhi.

Paul, the chairman of UK-based Caparo Group, said it would be better if Indian, French and Luxembourg governments get out it.

Asserting that there was no racialism in Europe, he brushed aside suggestions that the hostile bid was being opposed on grounds of Mittal’s ethnicity and wondered why the Indian press got this perception.

"It is a pity that the Indian press got into this. It is not a racial issue," said Paul, who is also the chancellor of the University of Wolverhampton.