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L’Oreal heiress Francoise Bettencourt Meyers is the first woman to amass a $100 billion fortune, Bloomberg reports.
Her wealth rose to $100.1 billion Thursday, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as shares of L’Oreal (OR.PA) — the world’s largest cosmetics company, founded by her grandfather — rose to a record high. Up 35% this year, the stock is set for its best year since 1998.
Bettencourt Meyers is the 12th richest person in the world, just ahead of Mukesh Ambani and behind Carlos Slim.
Still, Bettencourt Meyers’ affluence pales in comparison to compatriot Bernard Arnault, founder of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE (MOHF.BE), who is the second-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $179 billion.
Other ultra-rich French families whose wealth has been created through luxury retail goods include the owners of Hermes International (HESAY) and the Wertheimer brothers, who run privately owned Chanel.
A reclusive person, Bettencourt Meyers, 70, is vice chairman of the $268 billion L’Oreal, of which she and her family are the single-biggest shareholders, holding a 35% stake. Her sons, Jean-Victor Meyers and Nicolas Meyers, are also directors of the company, which had $42 billion in sales in 2022.
L’Oreal, which owns a wide portfolio of brands including Lancome and Maybelline, was founded in 1909 by Bettencourt Meyers’ chemist grandfather, Eugene Schueller, who started the empire with a hair dye.
While Bettencourt Meyers keeps her life private, shunning charity and social events, she has written two books, one a five-volume analysis of the Bible, and the other a genealogy of the Greek gods.
An only child, the world’s richest woman came into her money following the death of her mother Liliane Bettencourt in 2017. The family endured a legal battle that spilled over to a political scandal centered around the ability of her elderly mother to manage the family’s wealth.
Last month, Netflix released a documentary on the saga, “L’Affaire Bettencourt,” complete with secret recordings by a butler and an appearance by a former president of France.
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