L'Oreal Heiress Is First Woman EVER To Be Worth Over $100 Billion

Forbes

Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the richest woman in the world for the last four years, now has a 12-figure fortune after L’Oréal’s stock reaches record highs.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeswealthteam/2024/06/05/meet-the-first-100-billion-woman/?sh=30ad394765f6  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, meet the first $100 billion woman.

00:06There's an elite group at the top of Forbes' billionaires list.

00:09The $100 billion club.

00:12It has been an all-male fraternity of billionaires worth $100 billion or more.

00:18On Wednesday, the gender balance changed ever so slightly.

00:22Françoise Bettencourt-Meyers, the vice chair of French cosmetics giant L'Oreal,

00:27is now worth $100.1 billion, per Forbes' calculations,

00:32making her the first woman worth $100 billion or more.

00:37Bettencourt-Meyers, who is 70 years old,

00:40briefly passed the $100 billion mark on May 15, but then dropped back down.

00:45On Wednesday, L'Oreal Group shares rose 0.8% to 455.6 euros,

00:52putting her net worth at $100.1 billion.

00:56This according to our Forbes real-time billionaires ranking.

01:00Most of her fortune is tied up in a nearly 35% stake in the beauty giant

01:04that she owns with her husband and two sons.

01:07She has served on the board since 1997.

01:11Back in April, L'Oreal's stock soared after it beat first-quarter sales expectations.

01:16Its share price jumped more than 5% in one day,

01:19which put Bettencourt-Meyers within spinning distance of the cent-a-billionaire mark.

01:24The company pulled in $44 billion, or 41 billion euros,

01:28in 2023 revenues from its more than three dozen brands,

01:32including Maybelline, Kiehl's, and Lancôme.

01:35Its success is partially attributed to its strategic acquisitions,

01:39such as its purchase of Australian beauty brand Aesop last summer

01:43in a deal that valued the brand at $2.5 billion,

01:47adding to its Luxe Beauty category,

01:49which already includes brands like Prada Beauty and Yves Saint Laurent.

01:54Bettencourt-Meyers, granddaughter of L'Oreal founder Eugène Schuller,

01:58the man behind the invention of safe hair dye,

02:01made her first appearance on Forbes' ranking of the world's wealthiest in 2018,

02:06following the death of her socialite mother and leading L'Oreal shareholder,

02:10Liliane Bettencourt, in 2017.

02:13Both of Bettencourt-Meyers' sons, Jean-Victor Meyers and Nicolas Meyers,

02:18also serve on the L'Oreal board.

02:21Bettencourt-Meyers' fortune has increased by nearly $58 billion

02:25since her 2018 debut on Forbes' list.

02:29Despite the prominent milestone

02:31and her long-standing position as the richest woman in the world,

02:34the reclusive heiress prefers to keep a low profile.

02:37She shuns the spotlight she was born into

02:40and opts instead to write and play piano in her Paris home.

02:44Still, she joins a rarified club as mega-wealth is soaring across the globe.

02:49There are now 16 centibillionaires, all worth $100 billion or more,

02:54up from a record 14 in April when Forbes published its annual billionaires ranking.

02:59The fortunes of these 16 are up nearly 40% from 2023,

03:04and their collective $2.2 trillion wealth

03:07accounts for 15% of the aggregate wealth of the 2,781 billionaires around the globe.

03:14A record nine people have joined the centibillionaire ranks this year,

03:18up from six last year and just one in 2020.

03:22Sitting atop the L'Oreal beauty empire,

03:25Bettencourt-Meyers is an outlier in a cohort

03:27made up mostly of tech tycoons like Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin.

03:32Other uber-rich who have made their fortunes in consumer products include

03:35fellow French fashion and cosmetics mogul Bernard Arnault, who is CEO of LVMH,

03:41and fast fashion pioneer Amancio Ortega, creator of the Zara brand.

03:47The massive $100 billion figure seemed far out of reach until 1999,

03:52when Bill Gates briefly passed the mark as Microsoft's stock price peaked

03:56before crashing and slashing his net worth nearly in half.

04:00It took nearly two decades before Jeff Bezos became the sole centibillionaire in 2017,

04:06followed by Bernard Arnault.

04:09Bill Gates and Elon Musk joined them in the $100 billion club in 2021.

04:15For full coverage, check out Samantha Kroonjay's piece on Forbes.com.

04:20This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.

04:30Forbes.com

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