Richest woman in world dies

French businesswoman and billionaire Liliane Bettencourt, whose family founded L’Oreal and still owns the largest stake in the cosmetics giant, has died aged 94, her daughter said yesterday.

Bettencourt, listed by Forbes as the world’s richest woman, was the heiress to the beauty and cosmetics company her father founded just over a century ago as a maker of hair dye. Her death opens a new phase for L’Oreal, France’s fourth-largest listed company, altering the relationship it has with key shareholder Nestle, the Swiss food company.

Bettencourt and her family owned 33 per cent of the company. Her daughter Franc¸ oise Bettencourt-Meyers, who sits on L’Oreal’s board along with her own son, said the family remained committed to the company and its management team.

‘‘My mother left peacefully,’’ Bettencourt-Meyers said, adding that she had died on Thursday at her home in Paris.

‘‘I would like to reiterate, on behalf of our family, our entire commitment and loyalty to L’Oreal and to renew my confidence in its President Jean-Paul Agon and his teams worldwide.’’

In 2011 Agon was appointed chairman and chief executive of L’Oreal, owner of the Lancome and Maybelline beauty and make-up brands and of Garnier shampoos.

Nestle, which owns just over 23 per cent of L’Oreal, had agreed with the founding family that the two parties could not increase their stakes during Liliane Bettencourt’s lifetime and for at least six months after her death. The Swiss company has been a major investor since 1974, when Bettencourt entrusted nearly half of her own stake in the firm to Nestle in exchange for a three per cent holding in the Swiss company. She made the move out of fear that L’Oreal might be nationalised if the Socialists came to power in France.

Her net worth was estimated at $39.5 billion by Forbes. -

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