Shopping Mall Boom Fueling Brazilian Luxe

For years, Brazil’s wealthy have jetted to Miami or London to buy luxury goods. But that could start to change. That’s because at least 35 luxury shopping malls are set to open in Brazil by 2019, enabling brands to reach a larger swath of the country’s booming millionaires in large cities beyond São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Outlet stores are also on the rise, observers said. In 2015, four malls are scheduled to open in Porto Alegre, Belo Horizonte, Fortaleza and Cuiabá, adding to a string of fledgling malls in Rio, Curitiba, Recife and Brasília, said Claudio Diniz, owner and chief executive officer of luxury consultancy Maison du Luxe. Leading operators Iguatemi and JHSF will run many of the new facilities. “In the past, you didn’t have enough luxury shopping malls for brands like Chanel or Hermès, except in São Paulo,” Diniz said. “But now they are opening everywhere. They have realized Brazil is not just São Paulo and Rio. There are lots of millionaires in other cities.” According to Diniz, Brazil is generating one millionaire every 24 minutes and one billionaire per week (in local currency terms). There are 165,000 citizens holding more than 1 million reals and 164 with billions in

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