The Return to the Middle Class Is Taking "a Huge Toll on the Family"

09/18/2014 - 08h49

After having once been the world's seventh richest man, the business magnate Eike Batista says it is taking "a huge toll on the family" to return to the middle class in which he was born.

His wealth, estimated in 2012 at US$30 billion, has fallen to US$1 billion in the red, according to Batista's own calculations.

This is the debt he would still have to address, even if he succeeded in selling all shares of the companies Ogpar, OSX and MMX (which he still controls); as well as Prumo (formerly LLX), now belonging to the American group EIG; and Eneva (formerly MPX), which has been sold to the Germany company E.On.

After refusing to give interviews for more than a year, Batista decided to talk to Folha, 24 hours after the courts froze his accounts, in which there were still US$50 million (R$117 million).

Folha: How do you sleep, knowing that you owe US$1 billion?

Eike Batista: I still believe that we're going to make a lot of money. In the future, there will be an opportunity which allows us to pay off these debts.

But with what revenues will you pay off that debt?

All my savings are gone. Now there are the shares, which are to be valued. I have negotiated an arrangement with the creditors that covers me for the next ten years. In the meantime, I'm working to make some more capital, and, God willing, maybe there will be something left over for me in five or ten years' time.

How did you take the decision by the Public Prosecutor's Office to freeze your accounts?

I have nothing to say about the courts. I leave that to my lawyer, Dr. Sérgio Bermudes.

Are you afraid of facing criminal charges, and eventually imprisonment?

[Bermudes responds: "That's beside the point. There is no chance of prison in this case."]

When you transferred assets to your family recently, weren't you worried about being accused of trying to conceal them?

No. It was a family matter. I wanted to divide what I had with my children.

But why then?

Everyone does it. Wouldn't you? Accidents happen all the time.

You have said that OGX was the origin of the crisis. Who was responsible for your belief in the business?

Unfortunately, that's the nature of the sector. When there is no production, you don't know what's going to happen.

The Securities Commission of Brazil (CVM) said that there was excessive optimism in the information published by OGX between 2009 and 2012.

That was the data we had, what can you do?

When you sold OGX shares before publishing negative information, weren't you afraid of being accused of insider trading?

Those shares weren't mine. They were in my name, but they belonged to creditors. I had to pay a massive debt, and I needed the money.

Do you think that the companies are still viable?

Perhaps not MMX, because of mineral prices.

Do you have any resources abroad?

No. There's nobody more transparent than I am. Everything belongs to the banks.

Aren't you worried about the anger on the part of investors?

Many people did well out of this. I am not one of them. I still have my shares, but they are just what is keeping the debt stable.

What has changed in your life, since all of this happened?

I was born in the middle class, and my lifeyou knowto go back to thatit's hard for meobviously it's taking a huge toll on the family, especially with everything coming out in the press. That's why I decided to give this interview. It's about time I spoke up.

Translated by TOM GATEHOUSE

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