Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the L’Oreal heiress and richest woman in the world, has become the first woman to hold a $100 billion fortune, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
The Bloomberg Billionaire’s Index, which reflects changes as of 5 pm ET of the previous trading day, lists Bettencourt Meyers as the 12th richest person, just ahead of Mukesh Ambani and behind Carlos Slim, who recently became the first person from Latin America to cross the $100 billion threshold.
L’Oreal’s stock is at a record high. The stock has risen 35% this year as consumers have continued splurging on luxury products since the pandemic.
According to L’Oréal, in 2022 Bettencourt Meyers and her family owned more than 34% of the company’s stock.
Bettencourt Meyers was the only child of Liliane Bettencourt, whose father, Eugène Schueller, founded the L’Oréal Group. She inherited her mother’s holdings when Bettencourt died in 2017. Bettencourt Meyers is the chairwoman of the family’s holding company, Tethys, and is the vice chairwoman of L’Oreal Group’s board of directors.
The world’s largest cosmetics company, which owns a wide portfolio of brands from Lancome to Maybelline, had more than €38 billion ($42 billion) in sales in 2022, according to company reports.
Earlier this year, L’Oreal bought Australian brand Aesop in a $2.5 billion deal, the biggest brand acquisition ever made by the French beauty giant. Its previous record was its $1.7 billion purchase of of YSL Beauté in 2008, according to data from Dealogic.
Bettencourt Meyers’ fortune still relatively pales in comparison to LVMH chair Bernard Arnault, the world’s largest maker of luxury goods. He’s the second-richest person in the world according to the index, with a net worth of $179 billion.
