The businessman Eike Batista He was among the seven richest men in the world before losing 90% of his fortune in just over a year. Directly affected by the EBX group crisis, the engineer today sees value in other achievements besides money — such as works he carried out to help lower the electricity bills of several Brazilians.

“I don’t care anymore [para o título de bilionário]. When we are younger, we have that ambition of a billion, even a trillion. But after a certain age, the most important thing are the projects, the legacy that serve Brazil”, he said, in an interview with Spectacular Sundayyes Record.

Batista cites as an example the Port of Açu, in the north of the state of Rio de Janeiro, which is used by several Brazilian and multinational groups. “As an engineer, I’ve always done things with brutal efficiency,” he boasted.

Another project [que me orgulho] is energy generation, in which I built the lowest-cost thermal plants [do país]. In the background, [estou ajudando] to lower the electricity bill in your house. There was always this legacy thing.

According to Batista, he completely changed the key when he turned 63, giving more value to “things that serve society than thinking about this billion nonsense.”

The businessman, however, highlights that he has always been very competitive and even participated in speedboat races, collecting several trophies in Brazil and abroad.

My greatest wealth is my family, there is no good painter who painted just one painting. The entrepreneur who has the knowledge I have accumulated over the last 50 years [é valioso]. I worked with infrastructure, mining and now biotechnology. We developed sugarcane that produces 3 times more ethanol and 12 times more bagasse, which is used to produce packaging.