Eike Fuhrken Batista (born November 3, 1956) is a Brazilian business magnate who made a fortune in mining andoil 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 São Paulo stock market where enterprises with the highest standards of corporate governance are listed. The EBX companies listed on the BOVESPA are: OGX (oil and gas), MPX (energy), LLX (logistics), MMX(mining) and OSX (offshore services and equipment)
Batista is one of seven children of businessman Eliezer Batista da Silva, who was Minister of Mines and Energy in the João Goulart and Fernando Colloradministrations and a former president of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, 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.
Eike 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.
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. Eike 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 550,000 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. Batista is fluent in five languages – Portuguese, German, English, French and Spanish.
On March 17, 2012, the billionaire's older son, Thor Batista, then 20-year old, got involved in a car accident that killed a cyclist and could lead to manslaughter charges. According to Forbes.com columnist, Clare O'Connor, in the days afterwards, both Mr. Eike Batista and his son Thor have taken to Twitter to procclaim Thor's innocence, claiming that he “was at the speed limit, did a breathalyzer test and signed a statement describing the accident”.
In 2011, Batista was listed by Forbes magazine as the 8th richest person in the world and the richest in South America. His wealth is estimated at US$ 30 billion.Eike 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 through his own efforts (and not through inheritance).
The top-ranked Brazilian in March 2008, on the Forbes magazine list, was Antonio 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 is one of the 100 most influential men in Brazil of 2010. IstoÉ 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.
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, 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).
From 2004 to 2010 Eike Batista created and put into operation five companies: MMX (mining), MPX (energy), OGX (petroleum), LLX (logistics) and OSX (offshore industry).
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 (RJ), the MMX Sudeste Superport in Itaguaí (RJ), and the MPX thermal power plants in Itaqui (MA) and Pecém (CE). These important energy and infrastructure projects are being executed in parallel to OGX´s exploratory campaigns in Campos (RJ), Santos (SP) and Parnaíba (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, Eike 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.
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 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).
OGX is the EBX Group company which carries out activities in the exploration and production of oil and natural gas. The company is responsible for the largest private sector exploratory campaign under way in Brazil, with a success rate in exploratory wells of more than 90%.
LLX is 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.
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(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).
