Billionaire Zell: Brazil is top real estate pick

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., April 28 (Reuters) - Billionaire real estate and media baron Sam Zell said on Monday that, all in all, he'd rather invest in Brazil.

"I'd buy Brazil," Zell told the Milken Institute Global Conference. "It has the chance 30 years from now of being a bigger economic power than China."

Zell, chief executive of Chicago Tribune parent, The Tribune Co TXA.N, and chairman and president of Equity Group Investments LLC, was responding to a moderator's question on what single investment panelists would make in real estate.

Zell said the South American nation's large population of 180 million people, highly-trained work force, and array of crops and natural resources has made it largely self-sufficient.

Zell also said Brazil's biggest mall operator was seeing retail sales growth of 10 percent annually. (Reporting by Bernard Woodall and Nichola Groom; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)