L’Oreal heiress loses title as richest woman in the world to Alice Walton from the Walmart family
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers surprised the world late last year when she became the first woman to amass a fortune of $100 billion through her ownership of cosmetics giant L’Oréal.
She held the title of richest woman for several months, even though her fortune has shrunk to $89.9 billion since the beginning of the year.
Now Bettencourt Meyers has just lost the crown to the heiress of another corporate empire on the other side of the Atlantic.
Alice Walton, the daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton, has seen her net worth increase to $95.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Walmart shares have risen over 43% so far in 2024, supporting Walton’s wealth.
The two women come from families with long-standing experience in beauty and mass retail. L’Oreal was founded in Paris 115 years ago and ranks 90th on the Fortune 500 list for Europe. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is now number 1 on the Fortune 500 list for the 12th year in a row and is expected to generate annual sales of $648 billion in fiscal year 2024.
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L’Oréal: cross-generational wealth
Bettencourt Meyers, 71, is an academic by profession. She is chairwoman of the family holding company Téthys, which controls the majority of L’Oréal. She is also deputy chairman of the board of the company founded by her grandfather in the early 20th century.
Bettencourt Meyers and her family own about 35 percent of the cosmetics group, which her mother Liliane inherited after her death in 2017. The heiress is known for being reserved, so little is known about her life outside of L’Oréal. Her two sons have seats on the company’s board of directors.
L’Oreal, which owns well-known brands such as Lancome, Aesop, La Roche Posay and Maybelline, has become a global company. Although it has struggled with stagnant business and weak demand in China, it has recently posted strong profits.
The company is one of the crown jewels of French business, but Bettencourt Meyers’ fortune is far behind that of LVMH boss Bernard Arnault, whose net worth currently stands at $196 billion.
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Walmart’s heiress and the richest woman in the world
Walton is a philanthropist and is currently the 18th richest person in the world. She runs one of the two family companies, Walton Enterprises, which also operates Walmart, and is where much of her wealth comes from.
Walmart has had a stunning run as America’s largest company in both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce retail. The company has cemented its position by offering the lowest prices and being easily accessible to the average American through its partners like Sam’s Club. The company reached $1 billion in annual sales in 1980 and has managed to maintain its influence as a corporate giant, surpassing tech giants like Amazon and Apple in sales.
Walton shares ownership of the company founded by her father with her brothers Rob, Jim and John. She pursued a career in finance and even founded her own investment bank, Llama Co., which closed in 1998.
Today she is a philanthropist and founded the nonprofit organization Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, to which she and the Walton family donated their art collection and a 120-acre property.
