Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, granddaughter of the founder of L’Oréal, has seen her fortune grow 32% in the last eight months to $98 billion (84.2 billion euros), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
This remarkable increase (equivalent to some 20.6 billion euros) is mainly due to the 17% rise in the value of L’Oréal shares, which now trade at close to 400 dollars. Bettencourt Meyers owns 35% of the parent group, which controls brands such as Maybelline, Lancôme and Redken.
It thus becomes one of the year’s big winners, surpassing figures such as Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Pop Mart CEO Wang Ning and SoftBank leader Masayoshi Son, who have earned between $17 billion and $21 billion in the same period.
He is currently 18th in the world ranking of millionaires, ahead of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani (whose assets are worth around 97 billion dollars). However, he is still behind Alice Walton, the Walmart heiress, with assets estimated at 101 billion euros – she leads the female ranking.
Bettencourt Meyers inherited her stake after her mother’s death in 2017, and in 2023 she became the first woman to reach $100 billion. However, she suffered a severe blow last year when the share value fell, leaving her at the start of 2025 with a net worth of less than $75 billion
Finally, in April, she stepped down from the company’s board of directors after 28 dedicated years, and was replaced by her son, Jean-Victor Meyers, as vice chairman.
In summary.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers has once again made financial headlines: her fortune has grown by more than 20 billion euros this year driven by the strong performance of L’Oréal. She is now ahead of Asia’s richest billionaire, cementing her place as one of the wealthiest and most powerful women on the planet.
