by João Marcelo
SAO PAULO – Despite the pandemic, Brazil now has 20 new names on the Forbes list of billionaires, which was released last Friday, the 6th. With the new names, the country’s total super rich rose from 45 to 65 Together, they add up to a total equity of US $ 219 billion (R $ 1.225 trillion). Previously, last year, the amount was US $ 121 billion (R $ 710 billion).
Among the new names, some are from successful entrepreneurs. Among them, according to Forbes Brasil, are businessman Guilherme Benchimol, from XP Investimentos, and David Vélez, founder of the digital bank Nubank. The richest of them is Jorge Paulo Lemann, with a family patrimony of US $ 16.9 billion, who took the position that was the banker Joseph Safra, who died last year. The banker’s heirs are also on the list.
Other Brazilians who were no longer on the list returned to the ranking of billionaires in the world, such as Rubens Menin Teixeira, of the MRV construction company, Jorge Pinheiro Koren de Lima, founder of the health operator Hapvida, and members of the Feffer family, controller of the production company of cellulose, Suzano.
Some Brazilians, like Lemann, are domiciled abroad and do not appear among Brazilian billionaires in the ranking by country, an innovation on the Forbes list this year. They are accounted for in the countries on which they are based. Lemann and his partner at the brewery AB Inbev Carlos Alberto Sicupira, for example, are two Brazilian billionaires based in Switzerland. Antonio Luiz Seabra, co-founder of Natura, another Brazilian on the list, is based in the United Kingdom. Eduardo Saverin, the Brazilian who participated in the creation of Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg, resides in Hong Kong.
Among the new Brazilian members are also Fabrício Garcia and Flavia Bittar Garcia Faleiros, with US $ 2.1 billion (R $ 11.7 billion) each, Fernando Trajano, with US $ 1.5 billion (R $ 8.3 billion) and Giseli Trajano US $ 1.4 billion (R $ 7.8 billion),