World's richest woman, L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, dies at 94

Liliane Bettencourt, the heiress to cosmetics firm L'Oreal, has died aged 94, her family confirmed on Thursday.

A statement said she had died on Wednesday at home "peacefully" overnight.

With an estimated 2017 net worth of 33 billion euros ($40 billion), she was the world's richest woman, reports BBC.

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."

The L'Oreal empire

Ms Bettencourt's assets, including her holding stake in the cosmetics company, were placed in a trust controlled by her daughter Francoise Bettencourt-Meyers

One of her two grandchildren, Jean-Victor Meyers, succeeded her on L'Oreal's board as vice chairman, and was named to guard her personal affairs.

Her father, Eugène Schueller, founded a hair dye company in 1909, which then turned into the L'Oreal group.

It is now the world's largest cosmetics company.