Anderson Antunes – Forbes, 08/10/2012
Forbes magazine launched this week in Brazil (as Forbes Brasil) and what better way to kick things off in the country that’s minting new millionaires and billionaires every day than by publishing the very first list of the Richest Brazilians? The ranking includes 74 individuals and families who can call themselves billionaires in Brazilian currency, including all of 36 Brazilians who were listed in Forbes’ definitive, dollar-denominated World’s Billionaires list in March. But if the current weakness in the Brazilian real vs. the dollar continues, a dozen or more of those names will likely drop off the U.S. list.
Eike Batista continues to be the richest Brazilian on the planet, with a net worth estimated by Forbes Brasil at R$ 30,26 billion (US$14.9 billion). That’s a big drop from the US$30 billion he was worth roughly six months ago, and brings him into a near tie with No. 2, Jorge Paulo Lemann, who’s worth R$ 29,30 billion ($14.5 billion). “It took less than half a year for the difference between Batista’s and Lemann’s empires to drastically shrink,” notes Forbes Brasil senior editor Lurdete Ertel, who helped to compile the ranking.
As I wrote back in June, Batista lost half his fortune in recent months due to the decrease of his listed companies’ share prices.
