Editor’s note: This article was first published in July 2013. Its Fortune figures ($34.5 billion before, about $2.9 billion now), OGX’s 90% fall and the group’s estimated $60 billion in market losses are from that month. The story moved on afterwards, as OGX sought bankruptcy protection later in 2013.
A few years ago, Eike Batista made it onto the list of the 10 richest men in the world and warned Mexico’s Carlos Slim to keep an eye on both his left and right rear-view mirrors, because he couldn’t be sure which side he was going to overtake him on. Today this Brazilian businessman is struggling to keep his debt-laden companies afloat and, according to the BBC, his net worth has shrunk by more than $30 billion from the $34.5 billion he once had. His fortune is now estimated at $2.9 billion, which is not bad at all, but he could end up completely broke if his companies don’t win back the markets’ confidence.
He got his start at 25, making his first $6 million in 1980 by buying gold from producers in the Amazon and selling it in Rio de Janeiro.
His companies were tied to sectors such as oil, energy, ports and mining, which did well thanks to rising commodity prices. That led him to buy mines in different countries around the world and build one of the biggest empires through his EBX group, which, according to Bloomberg, is now over-indebted and in serious trouble.
Optimism may be essential in business, but many experts believe Batista made the mistake of being overly optimistic, which led him to let his guard down and even become arrogant.
Eike Batista is an ambitious man whose goal from a young age was to amass a great fortune. The names of all his companies end in X, which, in his own words, stands for the X of multiplication, of growth and business prosperity.
Now, with his company OGX having lost 90% of its market value, doubts hang over his entire conglomerate. The group’s stock market losses are estimated at around $60 billion, and no one knows how the story of this businessman who aspired to be the richest man in the world will end.
As we can see, reaching success is hard, but once you get there, perhaps the hardest part is holding on to it.
Further reading
Featured image: JulianaCoutinho; derivative work: – JBarta, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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