The Fabulous Life Of Eike Batista — The Brazilian Billionaire Who Is Risking It All To Become Richest Man In The World

By admin on February 5, 2013

Eike Batista

Flamboyant Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista made his first million from gold trading before he was 24 years old.

And from there it was a life worthy of the silver screen — he married a Playboy model, entered speedboat contests, and made it to the top 20 of the world billionaires list.

By 2012, he was worth $ 30 million and he was the 10th richest person in the world, gunning hungrily for the top spot.

But by the end of the year, half of his wealth disappeared. According to Bloomberg’s billionaires list he now ranks #89 on the list of the world’s wealthiest. Her could have to hand over more of his wealth

Batista was born in Brazil in 1956 and moved to Germany when he was a teen.

On of seven children, Eike was born in 1956 in Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Brazil, to a Brazilian father and German mother, he spent his childhood in the country of his birth, but moved to Germany when he was a teenager.

In 1974, he began to study metallurgical engineering at the University of Aachen in Germany.

He used to sell insurance door-to-door when he was in college

His family returned to Brazil when he was 18, and he started selling insurance to make ends meet. All his friends, on the other hand, were rich.

From the Australian Financial Review:

“So I got highly motivated to make some extra money and I sold insurance policies from door to door. It’s a great learning experience because some doors open and some don’t. I had a lot of teas with old ladies.”

But by 1979, he’d dropped out of college before he could finish his degree in metallurgical engineering and returned to Brazil.

Source: Robert the matador joins Eike the bull, Australian Financial Review, October 30, 1999 Saturday, Late Edition

After school, he tried to export granite, marble and diamonds.

He told the Australian Financial Review:

“I discovered it was controlled by the Italian Mafia, so I quit that and began organizing pick and shovel miners to produce diamonds.”

The garimpeiros (shovel miners) would come to his Rio office with diamonds in little bags. Batista introduced them to Jewish dealers from Portugal and Antwerp and collected commissions on each sale.

Source: Robert the matador joins Eike the bull, Australian Financial Review, October 30, 1999 Saturday, Late Edition

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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