According to a report released by Bloomberg on Thursday, Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the heiress of L’Oreal, has become the first woman to amass a $100 billion fortune, making her the richest woman in the world.
With its stock at a record high and the milestone coming, the L’Oreal company has had a successful year. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bettencourt Meyers’ net worth is now $100.2 billion.
The only child of Liliane Bettencourt, whose father, Eugène Schueller, founded L’Oréal, is 70-year-old Bettencourt Meyers. When Bettencourt passed away in 2017, she received her mother’s estate.
In addition to being the vice chair of the board of directors of the L’Oreal Group and the chair of the family’s holding company, Tethys, she currently owns more than 34 percent of the company’s shares.
As spending on luxury goods has continued to rise since the pandemic, L’Oreal, which is already the largest cosmetics company in the world, saw a 35% increase in its stock this year, marking its best year since 1998.
According to company reports, the L’Oreal Group generated over $42 billion (€38 billion) in sales in 2022, with a diverse portfolio of brands that includes Maybelline and Lancôme.
The Australian cosmetics company Aesop was acquired by L’Oreal back in August for a reported $2.5 billion, making it the company’s largest-ever brand acquisition, according to financial markets platform Dealogic.
As of December 14, Bettencourt Meyers is the 12th richest person in the world, right behind Mexican business mogul Carlos Slim, who became the first person from Latin America to reach the $100 billion mark.
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and owner of X, is still at the top of the list. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his net worth to be approximately $240 billion.
The man who makes the most money, Bernard Arnault, is the chair of LVMH, the company that owns Louis Vuitton, and he comes in at about $180 billion.