Alice Walton, of Wal-Mart family infamy, is now the richest woman in the world, as The FT reports Liliane Bettencourt, the heiress of cosmetics giant L’Oreal and world’s richest woman, has died at the age of 94.
The FT details that Bettencourt was the daughter of chemist Eugène Schueller, who founded the company in 1909. According to Forbes magazine’s ranking of global billionaires, she topped the list of the world’s richest women for the second year in a row in 2017 with an estimated net worth of $39.5bn. She stepped down from L’Oreal’s board in 2012 following a 17-year tenure, and her shareholding has been under the guardianship of family members since 2011, when a court concluded that she was unfit to look after it herself.
Bettencourt was the richest woman in the world but only the 15th richest person in the world. And with Bettencourt's passing, Wal-Mart's Alice Walton (19th overall in the world) becomes the richest woman in the world…
L’Oreal chairman and chief executive Jean-Paul Agon said in a statement that Bettencourt “personally contributed greatly” to the company’s success and “was a great lady of beauty who has left us and whom we will never forget.”
“We all had a great admiration for Liliane Bettencourt, who always looked after L’Oreal, the company and its employees, and was very attached to its success and development.”
via http://ift.tt/2hmO0Ht Tyler Durden