Brazil boom breeds new millionaires

By Todd Benson

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - When Fabio Calderaro was a 23-year-old cadet at Brazil's military academy in 2000, he invested a couple of thousand dollars in the stock market.

At first, the value of his investment plummeted. But as he grew more market savvy, his fortunes changed -- so much so that a few years later Calderaro quit the military and started living off his gains.

By the time he was 29, Calderaro was worth well over a million reais thanks to big bets on steel, mining and banking stocks just as Brazil's economy was taking off after decades of lacklustre growth. Since then, his fortune has swelled even more, cementing his status as a full-fledged member of Brazil's new rich.

"I was in the right place at the right time," said Calderaro, who is now 31 and teaches seminars on the stock market when he is not managing his own expanding portfolio. "All this was possible because of the economy."

Thanks largely to a commodities and credit boom, Brazil is seeing a burst of economic growth that is lifting millions out of poverty in a country long known for its stark inequality. On top of that wave, riding a stock market that tripled in four years, is a breed of millionaires like Calderaro being created at a breakneck pace -- at least 23,000 last year.

Only India and China churned out millionaires at a faster pace in 2007 than Brazil, according to the latest world wealth report by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini. The number of Brazilians worth more than $1 million (500,000 pounds) jumped 19.1 percent last year to more than 143,000, up from a 10 percent increase in 2006.

Brazil's billionaire club is also growing at an unprecedented pace. According to a survey by local business magazine Exame, at least 14 Brazilians became billionaires last year, almost a fivefold increase over 2006.

Like Calderaro, many struck it big in the stock market, cashing in on a wave of initial public offerings. A record 62 companies went public last year in Brazil, turning scores of investors and entrepreneurs into millionaires overnight.