Peter Millard, Rodrigo Origuela – Bloomberg Businessweek, 10/26/2012
Billionaire Eike Batista is pledging as much as $2 billion to shore up the finances of his oil and shipbuilding companies after drilling and output delays.
The controlling investor is granting OGX a put option that could require him to buy as much as $1 billion of new stock at a 36 percent premium. He will also buy up to $1 billion of stock in shipbuilder OSX Brasil SA (OSXB3) for 39.38 reais each, more than triple yesterday’s closing price.
Batista, 55, is attempting to ease concern the companies will run out of cash as OGX transforms itself from a startup with low costs and no output to an off-shore oil producer, according to Henrique de la Rocque, a portfolio manager at Brasif Gestao de Recursos. Batista’s net worth plunged by almost 50 percent since March to $19.6 billion yesterday after drilling and output delays caused stocks of his companies to tumble, threatening his title as Brazil’s richest man.
