‘We’re a Country of Losers’: Brazil’s Brashest Billionaire Goes Off

(Bloomberg) -- People wait for hours to take selfies with him. Some weep when they’re introduced. Luciano Hang often goes in for a hug when a fan approaches. Then there might be more weeping.

Hang, an eccentric 56-year-old who owns the big-box chain Havan, is a retail rock star in Brazil, a free-market evangelist and arguably Jair Bolsonaro’s most passionate booster in the business community. He’s pulling out the stops to encourage his many devotees to support the far-right president’s plans to transform the country by, among other things, relaxing gun-control laws, cutting back on environmental protections and embracing capitalism big time.

To Hang, the choice is obvious. “We’re a country of losers. We can be winners.”

A whirlwind on social media, his feeds are a mix of inspirational quotes, shout-outs to employees, animated attacks on leftists and more. Some messages are delivered in costume; recently he has been Robin Hood, a gaucho and Dom Pedro I, complete with a hobby horse.

The political thrust is always the same. Free markets are the future. The left is the root of all evil. Donald Trump is the best. Barack Obama destroyed America. Bolsonaro is a “humble, cheerful and patriotic man.”

The president, a former army captain who has been nostalgic about the brutal military dictatorship that ruled Brazil for 21 years, needs friends like Hang. Bolsonaro’s star has fallen in the polls and he has antagonized key allies since taking office in January. His cabinet is mired in controversy and infighting. His policy initiatives aren’t gaining much traction, even those, such as overhauling the public pension system, widely viewed as imperative as Brazil slowly emerges from the worst recession in a century. Pension reform is Hang’s favorite political topic.

While he may come off as a goofball (just watch the video of the party he threw to celebrate the first anniversary of the imprisonment of former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva), he is taken seriously in political circles.

“He’s a very controversial character,” said Eduardo Grin, a political scientist at Fundacao Getulio Vargas’ School of Business of Administration, but he has become the voice of “a business elite that is very aligned with rising conservative forces.”

He also knows how to rally a crowd. Hang was in full zany mode at a recent opening in a shopping mall in Indaiatuba, a town in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state. Like its owner, there is nothing subtle about the 5,000-square-meter store. Its massive facade looks like the others in the chain, modeled (vaguely) after the White House. But it lacks a Havan feature that is famous, or infamous, depending on your view, because the mall owners wouldn’t allow it: Most stores are graced by towering replicas of the Statue of Liberty.

Hundreds of employees in “We believe in Brazil” T-shirts — the boss was wearing one too — cheered as Hang ascended a stage near displays of sheets and blankets. For 40 minutes, he jumped up and down, made jokes, introduced his mother and wife and praised virtues including being bold, patriotic and respectful to one’s parents.

Every so often the crowd erupted in shouts — “strength!” “grit!” “determination!” — and collective screams of “success!” Speakers blared Cirque de Soleil’s theme song, “Alegria.” His employees ate it all up. “He’s a wonderful person,” said cashier Naiara Nascimento, 23.

Hang explained his approach afterward, as the line of people hoping for selfies grew and his bodyguards stood watch. “I preach as if I were in a church,” he said. But “in Brazil, the church has always said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. We can’t be a different nation with that messaging.”

In other words, Brazilians shouldn’t be ashamed of being ambitious and successful or of making money.

The communist scoundrels, as he tends to refer to leftists, are in his view the reason the country is troubled. “Communist reporters, communist economists, communist engineers, communist doctors, communist judges, communist environmental activists” — they’re everywhere, he said, and the right has to root them out.

“When we’re done with this vicious cycle, we’ll put an end to the left in Brazil. That’s my life’s goal.”

He got into hot water trying to achieve it when he was recorded encouraging his employees to vote for Bolsonaro. Prosecutors accused him of coercion; he denied that was his intention but a judge forced him to publish a statement saying people on his payroll could choose their own candidates.

The son of textile workers, Hang had a job in the same factory in Brusque as his parents and grandfather before starting a weaving shop of his own and then opening a fabric store with a partner in 1986. That grew into Havan. 

There are 126 stores in 17 of Brazil’s 26 states and plans are to boost the total to 145 this year. The chain, which sells everything from iPhones to bath mats to umbrellas and more, is the core of Hang’s empire, which also includes hydro-power plants, gas stations, a real estate company and an investment fund that provides financing to Havan’s customers. Hang has a net worth of about $2 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

He said he has no intention of going public with his business, which had 7.2 billion reais ($1.9 billion) in sales in 2018 and could record 12 billion this year. When there are shareholders to answer to and stock analysts to worry about, “totally crazy ideas won’t be executed because most people are not crazy. They are just normal,” he said. “And it’s the crazy ones who make things happen.”

There would seem to be risks for Hang as he ramps up his political messaging. If you don’t agree with his positions, will you buy tires or toothpaste from him?

“Losing the sympathy of those who are not ideologically aligned seems to be a calculated risk,” said Silvio Laban, a professor at Insper, a business school in Sao Paulo. At the same time, “the way he expresses his political stances has ended up increasing his visibility, and also Havan’s.”

Hang said he isn’t worried. “I haven’t noticed any drop in sales since I became a political activist.” His sales can go up or down, he said, no matter. “It’s Brazil I’m concerned about.”

--With assistance from Benjamin Stupples.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anne Reifenberg at areifenberg@bloomberg.net

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