Eike’s ability to raise money is reduced. If he wants to stage a comeback, he has to find something that doesn’t rely on leverage. That’s a really hard thing to do.”
Vitoriosa, right, the first cloned cow born from another cloned cow, Vitoria, left, introduced by the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation in this Feb. 19, 2004 file photo.
(Bloomberg) -- As he awaits trial for alleged insider trading, former billionaire Eike Batista is plotting a comeback.
Rather than oil and iron-ore projects, this time around Batista, 59, is touting ventures to clone cattle, produce generic Viagra that dissolves under the tongue and sell biomass to the U.K. to help him get back on top, an adviser said.
It’s the latest chapter in the saga of one of Brazil’s most colorful personalities, a serial entrepreneur once dubbed “King Midas” in local newspapers after the monarch in Greek mythology whose touch turned everything to gold. Batista parlayed a $5 million profit from a mining business when he was 23 into a $34.5 billion commodities, energy and logistics empire, only to see his fortune wiped out when his companies missed output targets and operating deadlines. Today, he has a negative net worth of $1.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index.
“He’s licking his wounds,” said Pedro Paulo Silveira, chief economist at the brokerage firm TOV Corretora in Sao Paulo. “Eike’s ability to raise money is reduced. If he wants to stage a comeback, he has to find something that doesn’t rely on leverage. That’s a really hard thing to do.”
Still, Batista is giving it a shot, said Roberto Y. Hukai, who is acting as an adviser on Batista’s startup ideas. Hukai is an energy consultant and professor of energy at the University of Sao Paulo who worked previously for Enron South America and Toyota Tsusho Corp.
“His image as a big entrepreneur is bigger than what he’s going through now,” Hukai said in an interview in Sao Paulo.
Pitching Ideas
Batista is accused by federal prosecutors in Rio de Janeiro of illegally dumping shares of his now-bankrupt oil company using privileged information. He has denied the accusations.
As he awaits trial at home, Batista is pitching his ideas for new ventures to private-equity investors, Hukai said.
Batista declined to be interviewed for this article. His press officer confirmed that he’s working with Hukai on startups and said all ideas are in the planning phase.
As Batista’s ambitions go from mainstream to niche, his funding needs are substantially more modest, too.
Batista, who raised billions of dollars selling shares in his oil and commodities companies, is now seeking $180 million for a wind park in Rio de Janeiro and $250 million for a project to export sugar-cane biomass as an input for U.K. electricity plants, said Hukai, who will earn a share of the profits from any companies that Batista starts up.
Cloned Dogs
Luis Claudio Rubio, a partner at Vignis, a Brazilian biomass company growing high-fiber sugarcane that can be turned into pellets and burned in coal-fired and thermal plants, confirmed it’s in talks with Eike on the venture.
The former billionaire is negotiating with a network of churches to sell them solar panels, Hukai said. Batista has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Hwang Woo Suk, a South Korean scientist who is planning to give four cloned dogs for Brazil’s federal police to use during the Olympic games. Batista wants to set up a cloning laboratory for cattle and rare animals using the scientist’s technology.
One of the most advanced of Eike’s comeback ideas is a venture to produce generic drugs that dissolve under the tongue. Batista signed a “development agreement” with a Seoul-based pharmaceutical company and is in talks with an Asian private-equity firm to invest in plants in Argentina and the Middle East, Hukai said.
Idea Addiction
Batista mentioned some of his new business ideas in an interview with Valor newspaper that was published March 17.
“Outlandish businesses -- that’s all Eike’s got left,” said Malu Gaspar, editor of business magazine Veja and author of the book “All or Nothing: Eike Batista and The True Story Behind Group X,” which was published in November. “He’s taken this addiction to sell his ideas that never amount to anything to a whole new level.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Vanessa Dezem in Sao Paulo at vdezem@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net Jessica Brice