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

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

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.