Alice Walton, the daughter of retail icon Sam Walton, is worth more than $95 billion for the first time, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That’s because Walmart’s share price has risen 44% this year to a record high, leading to a $25 billion increase in her net worth this year.
In contrast, the fortune of Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, the granddaughter of Eugène Schueller, the founder of the French cosmetics giant, has shrunk by $10 billion this year to $90 billion, representing a 13 percent drop in L’Oréal shares since January.
At the end of last year, the situation was different: Bettencourt-Meyers was worth 100 billion dollars, while Walton was only worth 70 billion.
Bettencourt Meyers ranks 19th on Bloomberg’s list of richest people, while Walton is 18th, just behind her two brothers, Jim ($98 billion) and Rob ($95.8 billion). The siblings each own more than 11 percent of Walmart, assuming their father split his shares in the company evenly among his four children. Bloomberg estimates they have also earned more than $15 billion over the years from stock sales and dividends.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers in 2010. MARTIN BUREAU/AFP via Getty Images
Bettencourt Meyers now owns around 35 percent of the world’s largest cosmetics company, which includes brands such as Garnier and Maybelline. She inherited the share from her mother Liliane, who died in 2017.
If Walton’s wealth continues to rise and surpasses the $100 billion mark, she will join an elite club of centi-billionaires that includes Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
Walton and Bettencourt Meyers are two of several heiresses who top Bloomberg’s list, including Jacqueline Badger Mars and Abigail Johnson, whose grandfathers founded Mars and Fidelity, respectively.
