OGX, a Brazilian oil and gas company controlled by billionaire entrepreneur Eike Batista, plans to raise up to $2.5bn in a share issue later this year in a further reflection of investors’ enthusiasm for Brazil following the discovery of potentially huge oil fields off its coast.

OGX has no interests in the newly discovered fields but its announcement was apparently timed to take advantage of investor sentiment over high oil prices and Brazil in particular, said Michelle Billig, analyst at PIRA Energy Group in New York.