SAO PAULO (Reuters)-Brazilian businessman Eike Batista, whose commodity and energy empire has collapsed over a decade, said Arab investors will soon announce a $ 500 million investment in his new project using sugar cane developed to increase sustainable fuel production.
WorkAzilinvest, based in São Paulo, intends to close another investment of this size this week with a strategic investor in the United Arab Emirates, Eike told Reuters.
The businessman, who was once the richest man in Brazil, said the investment will be used for a new module of 70 thousand hectares of planted area.
“Supercana is our revolution,” said Eike, in a video interview on Friday.
He added that the project was designed to have a production capacity of more than 1 billion liters of ethanol, as well as about 979,000 biodegradable packaging metrics using processed sugarcane biomass.
The plant, to be built in the state of Rio de Janeiro, will use ethanol to manufacture more than half a billion liters of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), said Eike, adding that it eventually expects to launch a total of 20 modules of 70 thousand hectares each, in various regions of the country.
Continues after advertising
The return planned by Eike, betting on a “supercan”, attracted skepticism of some critics in the well -established ethanol industry in Brazil, but the businessman reappears saying that technology has gone over a decade of testing.
Eike said she intends to supplant the range of sugarcane RB867515-the most common in Brazil-with her new variety SC157070 growing more than five meters high and allowing a denser planting.
At the very least, the new variety can produce two to three times more ethanol than traditional sugarcane, as well as 7 to 12 times more biomass, added Eike.
Continues after advertising
“In my view, the plants today in Brazil, in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years, will change all the sugarcane planted today in Brazil for this cane that has a different engine.”
Industry skepticism
Eike’s project faced initial criticism by Rubens Ometto, founder of Brazilian giant Cosan (), who said his previous experiences with similar technologies did not fulfill what they promised.
Continues after advertising
He said Ometto’s experience involved older technology, while his new project benefits from decades of advances.
The history of legal and financial problems of the former oil and mining of Mining also hangs over this new venture.
As he is legally prevented from being the owner at the moment, Eike is aligning rights to future subscriptions of the enterprise.
Continues after advertising
The entrepreneur has already been classified among the richest people in the world, until his participation in the oil, energy, ports and mining sectors collapsed. He was arrested in 2017 on allegations that he paid bribes for contracts with the Rio de Janeiro State Government.
The businessman denies any irregularity and says he was surrounded by the wrong people. “One of the hardest things in Brazil really is that you gather teams,” he said. “Today you can monitor… Through digital things and digital systems you can better monitor.”
During his golden years in the 2000s, Eike opened the capital of several companies, including OGX, its main oil company, which did not meet investor expectations and was forced to file a bankruptcy protection request.
In 2021, he was convicted and fined for use of privileged information and market manipulation involving OGX.
Eike said she is not seeking to make her new public venture as she has resources from large direct investors.
He and his team are also working in the pilot phase of a cryptocurrency, called $ Eike, which is currently evaluating the interest of investors outside Brazil.
The potential use of cryptocurrency to finance the project caught the attention of the Brazilian market regulator, the CVM, who is reviewing the $ Eike. However, the token is not immediately intended for use in Brazil, he said.
“The legislation around the world is still very confusing. The American Sec has not yet the very clear rules and I think Brazil does not allow to do it,” he said, adding that he expects Blockchain technology to revolutionize business by eliminating intermediaries such as benches and brokerages.
