Even shopaholic Brazilians may not be able to sustain mall rally

Sao Paulo

THINK twice before chasing the rally in Brazilian mall stocks. That is the message from analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, who overwhelmingly advise against adding to investments in developers such as Multiplan Empreendimentos Imobiliarios SA, Iguatemi Empresa de Shopping Centers SA and BR Malls Participacoes SA.

Mall operators have held up better than many of the retailers that fill their centres, and that resilience has helped their stocks rally 54 per cent this year, according to a weighted average of seven mall owners. That is almost three times the return for the benchmark Ibovespa.