Eike Batista

Early life and career

Batista was the second of seven children of businessman Eliezer Batista, who was Minister of Mines and Energy in the João Goulart and Fernando Collor administrations and a former president of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (now known simply as Vale), then wholly a state enterprise, between 1961–1964 and 1979–1986. His mother, Jutta Fuhrken, was born in Germany and, from her, Batista says he learned self-esteem and discipline, attributes he considers crucial to his formation as an entrepreneur. After spending his childhood in Brazil, Batista and his family moved to Europe when he was a teenager, due to his father's occupation. They lived in Geneva, Düsseldorf and Brussels.

In 1974, he began to study metallurgical engineering at the University of Aachen in Germany. When he was 18 years old, his parents returned to Brazil, yet Batista remained abroad and began selling insurance policies door-to-door to make his living. In interviews, he often mentions that the "stress" and the lessons learned from this experience were essential for his education.

Batista returned to Brazil in the early 1980s and focused his attention on the gold and diamond trades. He established himself as a salesman, contacting producers in the Amazon area and buyers in large metropolitan centers in Brazil and Europe. When he was 23 years old, he started a gold trading firm, called Autram Aurem, using the Inca Sun as the company trademark and symbol. A year and a half later, the company had earned US$6 million.

He implemented the first mechanized alluvial gold mining plant in the Amazon, marking the beginning of the EBX Group. At age 29, he became CEO of TVX Gold, a company listed on the Canadian Stock Exchange, thus initiating his relationship with global capital markets.

From 1980 to 2000, he created US$20 billion in value with the operation of eight gold mines in Brazil and Canada and a silver mine in Chile.

Between 1991 and 1996, the value of his company more than tripled.

Personal life

Batista married the model Luma de Oliveira in 1991, and divorced her in 2004. They had two boys, Olin and Thor. Batista enjoys running, swimming and practices marine sports. In the 90s, he was the Brazilian, U.S. and World Champion in the Super Offshore Powerboat class. In 2006, he covered the 220 nautical miles between Santos and Rio de Janeiro in 3h01m47s and beat the record for the course in his boat, the Spirit of Brazil. Batista maintains an active digital life, with a personal site with articles, videos and news about his companies. The digital channel that Batista has chosen as his primary means of personal communication is Twitter. His profile on Twitter, @eikebatista, has over 1,100,000 followers, who respond to his messages and interact with him. In 2011, Batista released the book “The Heart of the Matter” (O X da Questão) which recounts his trajectory in the business world and offers tips on entrepreneurialism.

National and international rankings

In 2011, Batista was listed by Forbes magazine as the 8th richest person in the world and the richest in South America. His wealth at one time was estimated at US$30 billion. Batista was also featured in Bloomberg Markets magazine as the only Brazilian on the list of the 50 most influential people in global finance, published for the first time in September 2011. The magazine focused on people “whose comments move markets; whose deals set the value of companies or securities; whose ideas and policies shape corporations, governments and economies”.

At the end of 2010, the magazine ranked Batista as the 58th most powerful person in the world, placing him as Brazil's most powerful person after the then-president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. The newspaper Folha de S.Paulo described Batista as an example of a "self-made man", an entrepreneur with a fortune acquired primarily through his own efforts (and not entirely through inheritance).

The top-ranked Brazilian in March 2008, on the Forbes magazine list, was Antônio Ermírio de Moraes, in 77th place with a family estate of US$10 billion. Another 17 Brazilians were on the list, including Batista (who in 2008 said his goal was to become the richest man in the world in five years). In 2008 Batista's fortune was estimated at US$6.6 billion and he was ranked at the 142nd place on the list of the richest men in the world. In 2009, he moved up to the 61st position and was considered the richest man in Brazil.

According to the Brazilian weekly magazine Época, Batista was one of the 100 most influential men in Brazil of 2010. IstoÉ magazine also listed Batista as one of the 100 most influential people in 2010. In 2011, Batista was included in the 1,000 CEOs ranking by Dinheiro magazine.

Projects

Since the 1980s, Batista created and put into operation eight gold mines in Brazil and Canada (Amapari, Casa Berardi, Crixás, Musselwhite, New Britania, Novo Astro, Novo Planeta and Paracatu), a silver mine in Chile (La Coipa), and three iron ore mines in Brazil (Mina 63, Tico-Tico and Ipé)."

All of Batista's companies were named with 3-letter combinations ending in the letter "X", which Batista believed was a symbol for the multiplication of wealth.

From 2004 to 2010 Batista created and put into operation five companies: MMX (mining), MPX (energy), OGX (petroleum), LLX (logistics) and OSX (offshore industry). As of 2013, due to falling commodity prices, none of his enterprises were profitable despite substantial infusions of cash by the Brazilian government, and Batista was engaged in desperate efforts to shed assets and meet the demands of creditors.

EBX

The EBX Group produces iron ore in Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul and has put into operation the first commercial-scale solar power plant in Brazil. The Group is making investments of an estimated US$15.5 billion between 2011 and 2012 in Brazil and is responsible for projects of significant scale in the country, such as the LLX Açu Superport in São João da Barra, Rio de Janeiro, the MMX Sudeste Superport in Itaguaí, Rio de Janeiro, and the MPX thermal power plants in Itaqui, Maranhão and Pecém, Ceará. These important energy and infrastructure projects are being executed in parallel to OGX's exploratory campaigns in Campos dos Goytacazes, Rio de Janeiro, Santos, São Paulo and Parnaíba, Maranhão basins, which have resulted in oil and gas discoveries. There were 20,000 people working in the construction and operation of the Group's projects in 2011.

The EBX Group is headquartered in Rio de Janeiro and also operates in nine Brazilian states. It has offices in New York City (USA), Colombia and Chile.

In addition to the infrastructure and natural resources sectors, Batista's EBX Group also invests other areas, including real estate (REX), entertainment (IMX) technology (SIX) and catering (NRX). In Rio, EBX is developing sports, hospitality, gastronomy, health and beauty initiatives.

Since the early 2000s, Batista focused his efforts primarily in the areas of natural resources, energy and infrastructure.

In April 2012 the EBX Group contracted International Business Machines Corp. to take over EBXs IT operations.

MMX

MMX is the mining company of the EBX Group, with integrated logistics and low production costs. The company has projects in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Mato Grosso do Sul, as well as in the country of Chile.

MPX Now Eneva SA

MPX operates in the energy industry in Brazil, Chile and Colombia. The company has complementary businesses in power generation, coal mining and exploration and production of natural gas. MPX is responsible for the first commercial solar power plant in Brazil in the city of Tauá (CE). As part of the restructuring of the EBX companies under Batista, MPX was renamed as "Eneva SA" and it is now co-controlled by Germany's E.ON SE and Batista.

OGX now Óleo e Gás Participações

OGX was the EBX Group company which carries out activities in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. The company was responsible for the largest private sector exploratory campaign under way in Brazil, claiming an early success rate in exploratory wells of more than 90% and initially valuing its deposits at more than $1 trillion. The company's wells turned out to be duds, however, and OGX filed for bankruptcy protection on 30 October 2013. In December the 2013 its shareholders voted to rename the company "Óleo e Gás Participações.", known simply as OGpar.

LLX Now Prumo Logistical Global

LLX was the logistics company of the EBX Group, responsible for building the Açu Superport, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, projected to be the largest port-industrial complex in Latin America. As of 11 December 2013, LLX was renamed to be Prumo Logística Global by its new controlling parent, U.S.-based EIG Group.

OSX

OSX operates in the offshore shipbuilding industry and is constructing the largest shipyard in the Americas, the "Embraer of the Sea," at the Açu Superport. Different segments: shipbuilding, in the charter of Exploration and Production (E&P) equipment and Operation and Maintenance (O&M). Shipbuilding firm OSX, part of the EBX Group, Brasil made the filing in a Rio de Janeiro in November 2013 court less than two weeks after its sister oil company, OGX, also declared bankruptcy.

Loss of fortune

On 26 July 2013, Bloomberg News reported his losses as "historic". The losses can be attributed largely to the downturn in the precious metals mining industry as well as a catastrophic collapse of Batista's OGX, which claimed it would pump 750,000 barrels of oil a day—only to find itself pumping 15,000. Additionally, other economic issues and management decisions factored in as well. Bloomberg News has attributed this fall to a "Perfect Storm".

He has been known to have claimed publicly several times that he would overtake Mexican baron Carlos Slim to be the world's richest man by 2015. However, akin to Japanese businessman Masayoshi Son, who lost over 90% of his fortune during the dotcom boom of 2000, Batista's wealth has decreased by over 100% between March 2012 and January 2014, from a peak net worth of $32 billion to a negative net worth. Many business and finance related media, such as Forbes magazine and Businessweek, are still in the process of concluding whether Eike Batista holds the record for having been the fastest destroyer of wealth.

Eike Batista, who has written in Brazilian newspapers about his loss of fortune and fall from billionairedom, has admitted that he regretted listing his companies in the stock markets, and that in retrospect a private equity model of financing his ventures would have been more suitable. Lastly, Batista has claimed that he would leave no creditor unpaid, and that he would fulfill all of his debt obligations.

On 9 February 2015, Brazilian police seized seven cars, including a white Lamborghini Aventador, and cash from Batista.

Enterprises

Major companies founded by Batista: EBX, OGX, MPX, MMX, LLX, OSX, REX, AUX, NRX Newrest, IMX, Gloria Palace, Marina da Glória, MDX, BEAUX, MR.LAM, PINK FLEET, and RJX.

Arrest

In January 2017, Brazilian authorities issued a detention order for Batista and eight other individuals as part of Operation Car Wash (Portuguese: Operação Lava Jato), a high-profile $100 million money laundering investigation. Batista returned from New York and was detained in the maximum security prison in Bangu.