Embattled energy magnate Eike Batista, once Brazil's richest man, has quit as chairman of the troubled power generation company MPX he founded in 2001, MPX said Thursday. The Rio-based company said in a statement that its board of directors Wednesday also approved an increase in private capital of $352 million to $2.82 per share. It said Jorgen Kildahl, member of the Board of Directors of German utility giant E.ON and a vice president of MPX, would take over as interim chairman.
It added that E.ON, which has a 36 percent stake in MPX, would invest $176 million while Brazilian multinational investment banking firm BTG Pactual would put in the rest. The statement said the capital increase replaces an earlier plan to raise $529 million at $4.4 a piece in a public offering.
Slumping shares of MPX, the energy arm of Batista's troubled EBX group, shot up more than 10 percent Thursday to $3.14 on the Sao Paulo bourse following news of the capital injection. "E.ON acknowledges Eike Batista's big contribution in MPX, turning it into one of the most attractive energy companies in Brazil, since it was founded in 2001," the MPX statement quoted Kildahl as saying. "Fro now on, E.ON will support MPX's continued development and the implementation of its solid portfolio of projects, which will play a key role in Brazil's energy security," he added.
The announcement came amid continuing difficulties for Batista's business empire, with shares of companies making up his EBX group nose-diving Tuesday. They recovered strongly Thursday following the capital injection announcement. Batista's net worth, estimated at $30 billion last year by Forbes magazine, has since shrunk by two thirds. Earlier this year OGX was reported to be in rescue talks with Russian and Malaysian energy giants as well as state-owned Petrobras. The EBX empire of commodities and energy businesses include OGX, MPX (energy), LLX (logistics), MMX (mining), OSX (offshore oil and gas services) and other firms.