The fortune of the "L'Oreal" heiress jumps by $24 billion to surpass the richest man in Asia
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the heiress of the French cosmetics empire "L'Oreal", has significantly strengthened her financial position this year, achieving an additional fortune of nearly $24 billion, thus surpassing the wealth of the richest person in Asia.
Bettencourt Meyers, 72 years old and the granddaughter of "L'Oreal" founder Eugene Schueller, saw her wealth increase by 32% over the past eight months, reaching about $98 billion as of Monday. This rise was driven by a 17% increase in "L'Oreal" shares this year, approaching the $400 mark, which boosted the value of Bettencourt Meyers' 35% stake in the parent company of brands such as "Maybelline", "Lancome", and "Redken".
Bettencourt Meyers ranked sixth among the biggest wealth gainers this year on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index as of Friday's close, ahead of "Google" founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, "Bob Mart" CEO Wang Ning, and "SoftBank" chairman Masayoshi Son, whose gains since the beginning of January ranged between $17 billion and $21 billion.
On the overall wealth list, Bettencourt Meyers came in eighteenth, moving up one spot ahead of Mukesh Ambani, chairman of the "Reliance Industries" group, whose wealth is estimated at about $97 billion. However, she still ranks three spots lower than Alice Walton, the heiress of the "Walmart" chain, whose wealth reached $118 billion and replaced her last year as the richest woman in the world.
It is noted that Francoise Bettencourt Meyers inherited her stake in "L'Oreal" after the death of her mother Liliane in 2017, and became in late 2023 the first woman in the world to surpass a fortune of $100 billion. However, the sharp decline in the cosmetics company's shares last year caused her to start 2025 with a fortune of less than $75 billion.
In a related development, Bettencourt Meyers retired from the board of directors of "L'Oreal" after 28 years, with one of her sons, Jean-Victor Meyers, succeeding her as vice president last April.
"L'Oreal" shares saw a strong jump this year after the company announced strong performance in the first half, with comparable revenue growth of 3% and an increase in sales across its four product categories and in four out of five geographical regions. Additionally, "J.P. Morgan" upgraded the stock rating from "Underperform" to "Neutral" in late July, citing improved growth prospects.
