Paris Sep 22 (IANS) Liliane Bettencourt the heiress to cosmetics firm L Oreal has died aged 94 her family has confirmed.
A statement said she had died at home "peacefully" overnight BBC reported on Thursday.
With an estimated 2017 net worth of $40 billion she was the world s richest woman.
She left the company s board in 2012 and was rarely seen in public afterwards but remained in the news because of a high-profile exploitation case following her dementia diagnosis.
In a statement the company s chairman and CEO Jean-Paul Agon said: "We all had a deep admiration for Liliane Bettencourt who has always watched over L Oreal the company and its employees and who was very attached to its success and development.
"She personally contributed a lot to its success for very many years. A great woman of beauty has left us and we will never forget her."
Bettecnourt inherited L Oreal group when her father died in 1957 Xinhua news agency reported.
She left L Oreal board in 2012 after she had been declared unable to run her affairs after a medical report showed she was suffering from dementia and Alzheimer s disease since 2006.
In 2011 her daughter Francoise Bettencourt Meyers awarded control of her mother s wealth or 33 per cent of stake in the French cosmetics empire ending a a long family dispute over the fortune s management.
--IANS
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