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Replies to post #168980 on Biotech Values
Making your executive team refer to you the CEO as "Doctor" on conference calls
RIO DE JANEIRO—In 2006, Eike Batista strode into Rio's opulent Copacabana Palace hotel for cocktails with a Canadian pension fund looking to play Brazil's rise. The Brazilian entrepreneur captivated his hosts with a brazen pitch: He aimed to be the world's richest man, and investors along for the ride would prosper, too.
"The way he says it, it doesn't sound crazy," says Brian Gibson, then a senior vice president with the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan, which organized the reception.
"As an investor, you are looking for someone who is hungry," Mr. Gibson says. "I didn't know if he was going to be the richest or not, and I didn't care."
Brazilian entrepreneur Eike Batista, once one of the richest people in the world, said his oil executives misled him and investors bailed out too quickly but predicted he will make a comeback. John Lyons reports on MoneyBeat. Photo: AP.
Mr. Batista didn't make it. Instead, he presided over one of the most breathtaking rise-and-fall stories in the history of business. Starting in 2006, Mr. Batista publicly listed five startups in five years, creating a Brazilian commodities empire from scratch. He called the companies "idiot-proof" and gave them names ending in "X" to mean multiplication of wealth. The 56-year-old's backers ranged from General Electric's GE -0.32% chief executive, Jeff Immelt, to portfolio giant BlackRock Inc. BLK -1.19% By last year Mr. Batista ascended to the Top 10 of the Forbes list, with wealth of more than $30 billion.
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