Batista tries to maintain his X factor
"CASH IS NO longer king," says Eike Batista, the Brazilian billionaire and chairman of the EBX group of companies. "No, cash is no longer king. Cash is God. In these market conditions, those with cash are going to be the winners."
Batista wants more. He plans to tap into the new big trend in Brazil and raise a $5 billion to $10 billion private equity fund. He will start the roadshow in April (see Batista tries to maintain his X factor).
But the question of who will invest in this risk-averse climate remains. "Risk is the probability of getting paid – therefore an investment in a resort in Nicaragua with good management and offshore collateral is probably less risky than giving a US company a rolling facility," says Hans Humes, president of Greylock Capital Management, an asset management group in New York....
