Because she’s worth it

ON December 28 Françoise Bettencourt Meyers became first woman to be worth $100 billion (€904.5 billion) after a rise in L’Oreal shares.

Bettencourt Meyers inherited the cosmetics and perfume empire in 2017 from her mother who, before her death, had been the world’s richest woman.

Promoted by celebrities, actresses and supermodels like Kendall Jenner, Penelope Cruz and Beyonce, L’Oreal is inseparable from its “Because I’m worth it” slogan, first introduced 50 years ago.

The company was founded in 1909 by Eugene Schueller, Bettencourt Meyers’s grandfather, to produce and sell the hair dye he had invented.

Headquartered in Clichy on the outskirts of Paris, L’Oreal has a €241 billion value on the Paris stock exchange where it is listed.

Seventy-year-old Bettencourt Meyers, and her family are L’Oreal’s principal  shareholders with a stake of nearly 35 per cent whose soaring value increased her wealth by $28.6 billion (€25.8 billion) this year to reach $100 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.

Nevertheless, Bettencourt Meyers was not the highest-placed French person on the Bloomberg list.  That position went to Bernard Arnault who has a $179 billion (€162 billion) fortune which grew by $16.9 billion (€15.3 billion) in 2023, owing to the performance of his LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) luxury goods group.