Eike Batista Says He Has $10 Billion, Won’t Need to Raise Money After Rout

Billionaire Eike Batista, Brazil’s richest person, said his energy, mining and logistics companies don’t need to raise money or sell assets after a market rout reduced their value by 26 percent in a week.

“We had the financial discipline to maintain $10 billion in cash,” Batista said in a telephone interview from Rio de Janeiro yesterday.

Batista has lost about $5.8 billion in the past week after his energy and mining startups plunged amid the worst rout in the nation’s equity market since the 2008 financial crisis. Since Aug. 1, the value of his stock holdings has fallen to 26.6 billion reais ($16.4 billion), according to data compiled by Bloomberg and EBX Group Co. Ltd., the holding company for most of his assets.

Batista became the world’s eighth richest man in this year’s list of billionaires by Forbes magazine by betting on a surge in demand from commodities. He said he expects emerging markets, led by China, to continue driving demand for oil, iron- ore and energy produced by his companies. Batista said he would not sell any assets.

“My machine will generate so much cash, even with lower commodity prices, there’s no need to sell anything,” he said.

EBX is a privately held company. OGX, Batista’s biggest company by market value, had $11.9 million in cash and short term investments and total liabilities of $481.5 million as of March 31, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.