Abu Dhabi wealth fund to buy into Brazil's EBX group An investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government is to invest $2bn in Eike Batista's EBX group as the Brazilian billionaire raises cash to compete with Brazil's state-run oil company, Petrobras. In its biggest emerging market deal so far, Mubadala will receive a 5.63 per cent stake in EBX and an indirect interest in the holding group's publicly listed companies, including the fast-growing OGX Petróleo e Gas Participações. Mr Batista, Brazil's richest man, has built up an estimated personal fortune of $30bn and an empire that ranges from logistics and mining to sports marketing and beauty companies. He has also muscled his way into Brazil's state-dominated oil industry, investing in Brazil's newly discovered vast "pre-salt" fields in an attempt to become the country's biggest private producer of crude. Abu Dhabi and Qatar have increasingly looked to Latin America for investments but most funds have concentrated on agricultural assets as the barren Gulf area looks to the region's fertile lands to feed their growing populations. EBX said on Monday that Mubadala's investment would be used to reinforce the group's capital structure as well as to fund new enterprises across various areas of the business. "The investment considerably strengthens the entire group and its ability to successfully implement current and future projects," Mr Bastista said, adding it was the first time a strategic partner company had invested in the holding company itself. EBX said the investment would be made via a preferred equity interest in Mr Batista's personal investment company, the Centennial Asset Brazilian Equity Fund, giving Mubadala a 5.63 per cent economic interest in EBX. The group said the deal would also give Mubadala the chance to participate in Mr Batista's pipeline of future investments, such as technology, cement, fertilisers, and entertainment companies. Mr Batista has often chosen to form strategic alliances as a way to raise money for his new projects. In January this year, German utility Eon agreed to invest €350m in return for a 10 per cent stake in EBX's energy company, MPX. For Mubadala, the deal marks its biggest investment in emerging markets after having made smaller moves in countries such as Nigeria and Russia in the past few years. Mubadala, which has assets worth about $46bn and stakes in companies ranging from General Electric to the Carlyle Group, also signed its first joint venture in China last year, investing $150m in the smelting industry. "This well-structured transaction marks our first significant direct investment into one of the fastest growing markets and is an important step in Mubadala's development of strategic opportunities in Brazil and Latin America," said Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Mubadala's chief executive.