FX.co ★ Eike Batista, Brazil’s fallen billionaire

It took a short time for the tycoon from Brazil to turn from a billionaire into a millionaire; he did not have even to marry. Eike Batista, a Brazilian billionaire managed to lose 99% of his fortune in virtually one year. Not that long ago, at the start of the previous year, the businessman took pride of the 7th place of Bloomberg Billionaires Index, an authoritative ranking with his capital of $34.5 billion. A year passed and the new top list was released where Batista’s capital assets were evaluated at merely $200 million. According to experts and other enthusiasts to reckon people’s money, one of the reasons is deteriorating the microeconomic state of affairs in Brazil, the world competition reinforcement and a drop in raw material prices. Moreover, the Brazilian market has been losing investors as there are fewer and fewer of those who are willing to invest money and develop industries in this area. The inside problems in the industrial group also exert influence on curtailing the funds. So in July, Mubadala Development, the sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates holding investments in Batista’s companies made a decision to convert them into debt obligations, further eroding the value of his assets. The total company’s debt is worth $2 billion. It should be reminded that the business empire of the ex-billionaire spanned metal industry, energy, logistics, building bulk container carriers, and oil production.