Who’s Who

Eike Fuhren Batista da Silva (more commonly referred to as Eike Batista) is a Brazilian mining baron whose greatest desire is to be the world’s richest man. The son of Eliezer Batista Da Silva, a long time mining tycoon and head of the mining company ‘Vale’, he’s one of the richest billionaires around these days, so he's well on his way to fulfilling his dream!

Early Days and Career

Batista was born in Brazil (a country he remains enormously patriotic towards) but spent a large portion of his childhood in Germany (between 1969 and 1980). He began to pursue an Engineering degree at the Aachen University, but in true billionaire style dropped out of college before graduating.

Instead, he returned to Brazil, where he began a gold and trading company in the Amazon and shortly after, decided to join the Canadian mining firm TVX Gold. This both made him and lost him fortunes several times over and he finally let go of this investment in 2000, selling the company for a whopping 1 billion USD.

He then returned to investments in mining and allied concerns, growing his fortunes by founding his own company as well as picking up strategic stakes in others.

Money Matters

He has a personal wealth estimated at about 8 billion dollars making him Brazil’s richest person and the 8th wealthiest in the world! Looks like he’s only 7 places shy of reaching his ultimate goal! (If he buys GHDC & SFMI he'll move up the ladder)

Aside from being a truly savvy businessman, Batista is also perhaps one of the most eccentric:

-As mentioned below, he’s obsessively superstitious.

-Rumour has it he keeps a silver sports car parked in his living room in pristine condition. No one is allowed to drive this--not even him! (Seems he likes a few things that are Silver)

-He is known to conduct business meetings while strapped up to an intravenous drip full of a mixture of anti-ageing vitamins!

Personal Probe

In his usually ‘high profile’ style Batista had an incredibly flashy romance and marriage to one of Brazil’s greatest beauties, actresses and Playboy cover girl Luma D’Oliveira. They married in 1991 and the couple had 2 children, Thor and Olin, before divorcing in 2004. ($hit, i'll marry him)

He is known to be uncannily outspoken, greatly superstitious and eccentric to say the least. His superstitions include an obsessive inclusion of the number 63, the letter Z and the sun in all his companies--all of which symbols he believes hold money-attracting powers!

Toys

Both Batista and his elder son Thor have a fascination for speedboats and own a 48-foot kevlar/carbon fiber catamaran with twin supercharged V8 engines. This boat is capable of reaching speeds as high as 260 kmh and cost over a million dollars! He certainly knows how to spend his money, and seems to be having a great time in the process! (Buy us out, and i'll be buying my own toys)