Content:

1. Early life and career---------------------------------------------------------------- 3

2. Personal life ------------------------------------------------------------------------4
3. National and international rankings-----------------------------------------------5
4. Projects------------------------------------------------------------------------------6
5. Loss of fortune-----------------------------------------------------------------------8
6. Bibliography -----------------------------------------------------------------------9

Eike Batista

Eike Fuhrken Batista (born 3 November 1956) is a Brazilian business

magnate who made a fortune in mining and oil and gas exploration. Presently, he
is the chairman of Brazilian conglomerate EBX Group. The group includes five
companies that trade on the BOVESPA's Novo Mercado, a special segment of the
So Paulo stock market where enterprises with the highest standards of corporate
governance are listed. These five companies are: OGX (oil and gas), MPX (energy),
LLX (logistics), MMX (mining) and OSX (offshore services and equipment).
In early 2012, Batista had a net worth of $30.0 billion, making him the
seventh wealthiest person in the world and the richest in Brazil. By July 2013, his
wealth had plummeted to $200 million due to his debts and company's falling
stock prices. Bloomberg reported in January 2014 that Batista "has a negative net
worth."

1. Early life and career

2

Batista is one of seven children of businessman Eliezer Batista da Silva, who

was Minister of Mines and Energy in the Joo Goulart and Fernando Collor
administrations and a former president of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, then
wholly a state enterprise, between 19611964 and 19791986. 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,
Dsseldorf 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.
His entrepreneurial instinct and talent led him to implement 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.

2. 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 Questo) which recounts his trajectory in the
business world and offers tips on entrepreneurialism.

3. National and international rankings

4

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 current
president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff. The newspaper Folha de S. Paulo describes
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
Antonio Ermrio 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 poca, Batista is one of the 100
most influential men in Brazil of 2010. Isto magazine has 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.

4. Projects
5

Batista has benefited from three decades of experience in international

business and has an ability to "generate wealth from scratch". Since the 1980s,
Batista created and put into operation eight gold mines in Brazil and Canada
(Amapari, Casa Berardi, Crixs, 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 Ip)."
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 (company)
(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 Au Superport in So Joo da Barra (RJ), the MMX
Sudeste Superport in Itagua (RJ), and the MPX thermal power plants in Itaqui (MA)
and Pecm (CE). These important energy and infrastructure projects are being
executed in parallel to OGX's exploratory campaigns in Campos (RJ), Santos (SP)
and Parnaba (MA) basins, which have resulted in oil and gas discoveries. There
are currently 20,000 people working in the construction and operation of the
Group's projects.
The EBX Group is headquartered in Rio de Janeiro and also operates in nine
Brazilian states. It has offices in New York (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.
6

Since the early 2000s, Batista focused his efforts primarily in the areas of
natural resources, energy and infrastructure.
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 Tau (CE). As part of
the restructuring of the EBX companies under Mr. Batista, MPX was renamed as
"Eneva SA" and it is now co-controlled by Germany's E.ON SE and Mr. Batista.
OGX Now Oleo e Gas Participacoes - 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 October 30, 2013. In December the 2013 its shareholders voted to
rename the company "Oleo e Gas Participacoes."
LLX Now Prumo Logistical Global - LLX was the logistics company of the
EBX Group, responsible for building the Au Superport, in the state of Rio de
Janeiro, projected to be the largest port-industrial complex in Latin America. As of
December 11, 2013, LLX was renamed to be Prumo Logstica 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 Au
Superport (an LLX project) industrial complex. The company also provides
services to the offshore oil and natural gas industry in three 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.
7

5. Loss of fortune
On July 26, 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 dayonly 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".
Eike Batista has been known to have claimed publically several times that
he would overtake Mexican baron Carlos Slim Helu 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 Y2K, 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.

6. Bibliography:

Eike Batista, /wiki/Eike_Batista, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eike_Batista,

(08/06/14)
Business Leaders, /business-leaders/Eike-Batista-257/biography/,
http://www.4-traders.com/business-leaders/Eike-Batista-257/biography/,

(08/06/14)
Eike Batista, /eike-batista, http://www.famous-entrepreneurs.com/eikebatista, (08/06/14)