Heiress quits L’Oreal as firm reveals profit
FRENCH cosmetics maker L’Oreal said yesterday it expected increased revenue and profits again this year, with emerging markets set to eclipse Western Europe as the biggest contributor to sales.
The group also said that L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, 89, France’s richest woman with a 30 per cent stake in the €49bn (£40.1bn) company, was leaving the board to be replaced by her 25-year-old grandson Jean-Victor Meyers.
The maker of Garnier shampoo, Lancome creams and Yves Saint Laurent perfume posted 2011 operating profit of €3.29bn, up 7.7 per cent and ahead of estimates.
The world’s biggest cosmetics group’s operating margin rose to 16.2 per cent from 15.7 per cent the previous year. Full-year sales rose 5.1 per cent like-for-like to €20.34bn, also just ahead of forecasts.
Chief executive Jean-Paul Agon said the group was well-equipped to “achieve another year of sales and profit growth in 2012” following a year in which the global cosmetics market trend was favourable.
The chief exec also thanked Bettencourt for what he called her “unrelenting support to the managers of the group”, adding that her interest for the group “remains strong”.
The Bettencourts have a 10-year deal with Swiss group Nestle, which owns 31 per cent of L’Oreal, giving each party first refusal for their stakes. Neither can raise their stakes during Liliane Bettencourt’s lifetime.
Bettencourt lost control of her business affairs to daughter Francoise Meyers-Bettencourt, mother of Jean-Victor Meyers, in an October judgment on the basis of a medical examination that concluded she was suffering from a form of dementia.
Meyers, who has been a member of the supervisory board of Bettencourt family holding Tethys since January 2011, was given responsibility for his grandmother’s health and physical well-being.
Liliane Bettencourt has left the board of L’Oreal after medics concluded she had a form of dementia