The Brasil Rich List

According to Forbes Brasil when it comes to reaching billionaire status in Brazil, being born rich helps. More than a third of the individuals ranked by the magazine whose net worth is equal or above one billion Brazilian reais (US$446 million, using US$1 = R$ 2.24, as of July 25th) are concentrated in traditional rich clans who still control some of Brazil’s largest corporations. Businesses were and still are usually started by family members, the most successful of whom have been able to maintain their wealth across multiple generations.

That’s the case of the three brothers Roberto Irineu, Joao Roberto and Jose Roberto Marinho, who share the control of Latin America’s largest media empire, Globo, and whose combined net worth is R$ 51.64 billion (US$23 billion), making them Brazil’s richest family. The media behemoth was founded in 1925 by their grandfather, Irineu Marinho, but it was really their father, Roberto Marinho, who made it into one of the world’s largest.

 The passing of Brazil’s richest woman in April turned the late billionaire’s three daughters – Renata, Regina and Rosana – into billionaires themselves, and one of the country’s richest families, too. Their combined net worth is R$ 22.38 billion ($10 billion).

There are 124 billionaires in the country’s local-currency. Their combined net worth is R$ 544 billion ($243 billion), or 12.36% of Brazil’s GDP in 2012 (R$ 4.4 trillion, or US$1.96 trillion).

The richest individual in Brazil is now Jorge Paulo Lemann, who recently bought Heinz (along with Warren Buffett) and is a major shareholder in both AB-InBev and Burger King. His net worth is estimated at R$ 38.24 billion ($17 billion). Most of Lemann’s net worth comes from his investments abroad, especially in American companies.