BY ETHAN SMITH
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Brazilian mining billionaire Eike Batista said that he expects to become the world's richest person, speaking in an interview at the Milken Institute's annual global conference.
Mr. Batista, whose net worth was recently estimated by Forbes magazine at $27 billion, didn't specify when he thought he would vault to the top of the world's-wealthiest list, where he currently is No. 8.
"I have to compete with Mr. Slim," Mr. Batista said, referring to Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu.
Brazilian energy entrepreneur Eike Batista, who made the biggest leap up Forbes' list of the world's richest people this year, is anything but shy about his rapid ascent into the big billionaires club.
A half-German college dropout who for years struggled to emerge from the shadow of his well-known father, Batista has long said that he wants nothing less than to be Brazil's and the world's richest person.
He took a big leap to the grander goal on Wednesday when the Forbes list showed him bolting up to 8th place as his wealth more than tripled to $27 billion from a lowly 61st place last year. He is the only Brazilian in the top ten.
Batista, who works in a beach-front Rio office, has become the business face of Brazil's remarkable turnaround from basket case to economic powerhouse over the past decade and become one of the country's best-known personalities along the way.
"He is the person that took most advantage of this Brazil that the world is discovering now," said Francois Moreau, a former oil executive who works as an independent energy analyst in Rio.
A top-class speedboat racer who was married to a famous Rio de Janeiro Carnival queen, Batista recently dined with U.S. pop star Madonna in Rio and reportedly handed her a check over dinner for $7 million as a donation for her social projects.
"I'm sorry -- that's just going happen."
He proved right.
A $1 billion bet he took in 2007 on buying licenses to explore 21 offshore oil blocks has paid off handsomely, helping him to cruise through the global financial crisis as he added lucrative oil interests to his mining operations.
His bold move into the huge, newly discovered oil fields off Rio's coastline paid off when he took oil exploration firm OGX public in June 2008, raising 6.71 billion reais ($3.8 billion) in Brazil's biggest IPO at that time.
He is planning to take shipbuilding and oil services firm OSX public next week in an expected $5.6 billion offering, which would be Brazil's second-biggest IPO and which may vault him into the top five wealthiest people.
EARLY ADVENTURER
Batista was born into wealth -- his father was chief executive of Brazilian mining giant Vale -- but from early on he was determined to make his own name as an adventurous businessman.
After spending most of his early life in Europe, Batista settled in Brazil in 1980 to start an independent gold mining and trading company in the Amazon, negotiating with wildcat gold diggers. He later joined Canadian mining company TVX Gold as a major stockholder.
Batista, who also had mining ventures in Russia and Chile, has said he owes the success of his business to following the basic rules of mining exploration that he learned as a young man digging for gold.
"In mining, you go to some crazy place, you set up a camp, you start looking for water and energy and this way you can build anything," Batista said in the 2008 interview."That's the mind-set. That's my life. That's how I learned to build things from zero."
Executives at Brazil's two leading companies -- Vale and Petrobras, the national energy company -- acknowledge that Batista has superb teams of geologists who came from their own ranks for both iron ore and oil.
But his ambition to become the world's richest person could be held back by the sprawling nature of his business interests, which range from logistics to mines and energy.
"There is too much on his plate. Delivery, for me, is an issue," said Moreau. "But clearly he is capable of hiring top-caliber guys."
Batista says that a desire to emerge from his father's shadow has driven much of his ambition. He also has a burning ambition to transform Rio into a modern, thriving city that his two young sons, Olin and Thor, will want to live in.
He bought one of the city's most famous old hotels and is spending millions of dollars to modernize it. And just before Rio was awarded the 2016 Olympic Games last year, he bought up a nearby marina that will be a hub of the games -- another example of his eye for a well timed deal.
Millionaires holds 39 per cent of world's wealth - Boston Consulting Group Global Wealth report
AFP June 01, 2011
Despite being at the epicentre of the global financial meltdown, the United States had by far the most millionaires last year.
JUST one per cent of the world's households holds more than a third of the world's wealth, a new study suggests.
The number of millionaire households increased 12 per cent last year, increasing millionaires' share of the world's wealth two percentage points to 39 per cent.
The study published by the Boston Consulting Group pointed to increased inequalities in the wake of the global downturn.
Despite being at the epicentre of the global financial meltdown, the United States had by far the most millionaires last year - 5.2 million millionaire households, and increase of 1.3 per cent on the previous year.
Japan was second with 1530 and China third with 1110.
BRW's rich list last month showed Australia now has 35 billionaires, five more than last year, with the cut-off point now $215 million, which is $30 million higher than last year.
Iron ore magnate Gina Rinehart is Australia's richest woman, and became the first woman to top the list, with a fortune doubling over the past year to $10.3 billion.
Tiny Asian economic powerhouse Singapore boosted its number of households with more than a million dollars under management, up nearly one third from 2009.
Over 15 per cent of households in the city state have over a million dollars in assets under management, well ahead of the Switzerland and the oil-rich Arabian Gulf states.
Countries with the most millionaire households
1. United States
2. Japan
3. China
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