Midas touch can't save Brazilian billionaire's empire Billionaire Eike Batista, a flamboyant former powerboat racer with a frenzied sales pitch, predicted his enterprises would make him the world's richest man. On top of the world, just like Brazil. "I want to surpass Bill Gates in five years," he told the newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo that year. Brazil has to be No. By last year, his wealth - concentrated in sectors such as oil and shipbuilding that are priorities for Brazil's economy - was estimated at $34.5 billion, making him the world's seventh- richest person, according to Forbes Magazine. But what over-optimistic investors and auditors now say they failed to see was that his companies were mostly under construction, loaded with debt, eating up capital and years away from turning a profit. Underneath the glossy surface and Batista's sunny sales pitch, investors were beginning to panic, and the empire was starting to crumble, just as Brazil's big economy was foundering. In recent weeks, Batista's EBX Group - the holding company for his once-high-flying enterprises - has nearly collapsed as investors abandon the tycoon. As of late last month, Batista, 56, was no longer a billionaire but rather worth about $200 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The oil- producing arm of EGX pumps only a few thousand barrels of oil a day, and the ports he envisioned as export gateways lie largely listless. To some, Batista's tumble is a parable for what is happening to Brazil itself. The country that had been a Wall Street darling from 2003 through 2010 is still solid economically. But growth has been dreary for nearly three years, demand for commodities is down and its stock market is among the world's worst performing. A once-popular government also is struggling to placate the simmering discontent that sparked nationwide protests in June against corruption, substandard public services and the kind of cronyism that has benefited well-connected businessmen, including Batista, whose name inspires ire among many Brazilians. "Now reality has set in, and it's pretty clear that despite the euphoria and optimism, the overconfidence has not treated Brazil all that well," said Fergus McCormick, who tracks Brazil for the DBRS rating agency in New York. The repercussions are that it's settling into a far lower pace of growth, which is not enough to meet expectations. The outlook, though, was anything but dire as recently as last year for the six intertwined companies under Batista's command. Idiot-proof assets The flagship was the oil company, OGX, which earlier this year was the country's No. 2 oil firm by market value. The shipyard OSX was created to build the mammoth platforms needed to pump oil offshore. Batista's LLX constructed two "super ports" outside Rio that would export commodities the world over.