World’s Richest Woman Loses $7 Billion On L’Oreal’s Worst Day Since 2008

Topline

The net worth of the world’s wealthiest woman Francoise Bettencourt Meyers fell precipitously Friday as shares of L’Oreal, the French beauty company about one-third owned by the billionaire and her family, registered their worst single-day performance since the Great Recession.

Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers, center, speaks to the press with her two sons in 2015. AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Bettencourt Meyers and her family’s fortune fell $6.9 billion to $91.7 billion Friday, making the 70-year-old matriarch by far the biggest loser of any billionaire Friday, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire tracker.

Bettencourt Meyers, who owes much of her wealth to her family’s stake in the cosmetics goliath, remains the 15th-richest person on the planet and by far the richest woman, holding a roughly $26 billion larger fortune than the second-richest woman, Walmart heiress Alice Walton.

Friday’s freefall came as L’Oreal’s stock tanked nearly 8% to a three-month low after a slowdown in its Asia business caused the firm’s quarterly sales to fall short of analyst estimates.

Surprising Fact

Friday was the single worst day for Paris-listed shares of L’Oreal since Oct. 27, 2008, according to FactSet data.

Key Background

Bettencourt Meyers, the granddaughter of L’Oreal founder Eugène Schueller and sole daughter of the former wealthiest woman in the world Liliane Bettencourt, serves as vice chairwoman of L’Oreal’s board. L’Oreal is Europe’s sixth-most valuable company by market capitalization, trailing only weight loss drug giant Novo Nordisk, food titan Nestlé, Dutch semiconductor chip maker ASML and fellow French lifestyle brands LVMH and Hermés. L’Oreal’s subsidiaries include Kiehl’s, Maybelline and Garnier. L’Oreal stock’s 9% year-to-date decline knocked out $25 billion of market cap.

Further Reading

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