Francoise Bettencourt Meyers
Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, the world’s richest woman, is bolstering her family’s investment company with a hire from McKinsey amid a surge in the value of L’Oreal, the cosmetics company founded by her grandfather.
Ms Bettencourt Meyers' Tethys Invest company named Cyrielle Villepelet as managing director to work alongside chief executive Alexandre Benais.
Ms Villepelet was most recently a partner in the Paris office of consultancy McKinsey, working in the luxury, fashion and consumer goods industries.
Tethys invests in areas that do not compete with L’Oreal. Last year, it bought into decade-old retailer Sezane alongside private equity company General Atlantic and, in 2017, it invested in French private hospital operator Elsan.
The company is partly funded by L’Oreal dividends.
Top 10 richest women in 2022 — pictures
Ms Bettencourt Meyers, 69, is the biggest single shareholder in L’Oreal with a stake of about 35 per cent.
She is one of a clutch of French luxury titans whose companies have benefitted from growing demand for high-end make-up, clothes and jewellery.
The ultra-wealthy group also includes Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest person and founder of fashion empire LVMH, and rival Francois Pinault, who started Kering, owner of brands such as Gucci and Balenciaga.
The Wertheimer brothers, who own Chanel, and the family behind leather goods maker Hermes International are also in the clique.
Mr Arnault is worth $188.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, while Ms Bettencourt Meyers is number 12 in the ranking with an estimated fortune of $79.3 billion.
Watch: Who is Bernard Arnault, the man who replaced Elon Musk as world’s richest?
Alain Wertheimer is the world's 25th-richest person and his brother, Gerard, is 26th. Both have a fortune of $48.4 billion, while Mr Pinault is ranked 30th with $40.9 billion.
As a leader in the global skincare market, L’Oreal could benefit from a higher-than-expected demand for beauty products should China rebound this year, UBS analysts wrote in a recent note.
The company's shares have more than doubled in the past five years, valuing it at $217 billion.
With a reclusive reputation, Ms Bettencourt Meyers is on the board of L’Oreal along with her two sons, Jean-Victor Meyers and Nicolas Meyers.
She has written two books — a five-volume study of the Bible and a genealogy of the Greek deities — and is known for playing piano for hours every day.
She came into her fortune following the death of her mother, Liliane Bettencourt, in 2017 at the age of 94.
Elon Musk
Twitter may break even on a cash flow basis in the second quarter and has a shot at even going positive, according to the social media platform's billionaire owner Elon Musk.
The company has been working on making its advertising more relevant, said Mr Musk, speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference last Tuesday.
Mr Musk, who bought Twitter last year for $44 billion, emphasised that its debt burden after the deal was quite high while the cost of servicing the debt is about $1.5 billion annually, almost equal to its current cash burn rate.
With all the attention Twitter receives, it is “startling” how little money it makes, he said.
Mr Musk, the world's second-richest person with a net worth of $174 billion, said the microblogging platform was profitable based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) but emphasised the “D” was quite big and that they needed to focus on the “E” part.
Mr Musk has a long-standing relationship with Morgan Stanley.
The investment bank has led or co-led several of Tesla’s offerings, including a $2 billion offering in 2020, and oversaw the effort to line up debt financing for the Twitter deal.
However, Morgan Stanley, along with other banks, struggled to offload Twitter's debt to outside investors.
Mukesh Ambani
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s group is getting into genetic mapping, looking to make a healthcare trend led by disruptive US start-ups such as 23andMe cheaper and more widespread in India’s growing consumer market.
The conglomerate, which has interests spanning from energy to e-commerce, will unveil a comprehensive $145 genome sequencing test within weeks, said Ramesh Hariharan, chief executive of Strand Life Sciences, which developed the product.
Reliance Industries, led by Mr Ambani, Asia’s richest person, acquired the Bengaluru-based company in 2021 and now owns about 80 per cent of it.
The genome test, which is about 86 per cent cheaper than other offerings available locally, can reveal a person’s predisposition to cancers, cardiac and neurodegenerative ailments, as well as identify inherited genetic disorders, he said.
The project to bring cheaper personal gene-mapping to India’s 1.4 billion people — on track to be the world’s most populous nation — will potentially create a treasure trove of biological data that can aid drug development and disease prevention in the region.
It also dovetails with Mr Ambani’s ambitions to dive further into the world of data — he has often called it the “new oil” — as he pivots his $192 billion empire beyond refining into consumer and digital services.
The global genetic testing market was valued at $12.7 billion in 2019 and is expected to touch $21.3 billion by 2027, according to a report from Allied Market Research.
Klaus-Michael Kuehne
Klaus-Michael Kuehne, Germany’s richest person, stands to pocket $4.5 billion in dividends this year from his growing transport empire, a windfall that could fuel another round of investments to boost his fortune.
Kuehne + Nagel International, the world’s largest air and sea freight-forwarding business, last week announced a planned payout of 14 Swiss francs ($14.90) a share, a 40 per cent increase from the previous year.
That would give Mr Kuehne 896 million francs from his 53 per cent stake, if shareholders approve the proposal.
The dividend adds to the $3.5 billion Mr Kuehne stands to gain from his 30 per cent holding in container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd and a potential payout from his stake in Lufthansa, the German airline.
Mr Kuehne, 85, is worth $41.4 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the 29th-richest person in the world.
The billionaire, who moved to Switzerland half a century ago, married at the age of 52 and has no children.
He created a non-profit Swiss foundation in 1976 that focuses on logistics and medicine, with strong ties to his investment vehicle Kuehne Holding.
Should he “fall over now”, his closest Swiss adviser and vice president of his foundation, Thomas Staehelin, would take over, Mr Kuehne said in a recent interview. A spokeswoman for the Kuehne Foundation declined to comment.
In naming his replacement, Mr Kuehne also noted that Mr Staehelin is 75 years old and other possibilities are emerging as the boards of the foundation and his holding company are “rejuvenated”.
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
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The Land between Two Rivers: Writing in an Age of Refugees
Tom Sleigh, Graywolf Press
The Facility’s Versatility
Between the start of the 2020 IPL on September 20, and the end of the Pakistan Super League this coming Thursday, the Zayed Cricket Stadium has had an unprecedented amount of traffic.
Never before has a ground in this country – or perhaps anywhere in the world – had such a volume of major-match cricket.
And yet scoring has remained high, and Abu Dhabi has seen some classic encounters in every format of the game.
October 18, IPL, Kolkata Knight Riders tied with Sunrisers Hyderabad
The two playoff-chasing sides put on 163 apiece, before Kolkata went on to win the Super Over
January 8, ODI, UAE beat Ireland by six wickets
A century by CP Rizwan underpinned one of UAE’s greatest ever wins, as they chased 270 to win with an over to spare
February 6, T10, Northern Warriors beat Delhi Bulls by eight wickets
The final of the T10 was chiefly memorable for a ferocious over of fast bowling from Fidel Edwards to Nicholas Pooran
March 14, Test, Afghanistan beat Zimbabwe by six wickets
Eleven wickets for Rashid Khan, 1,305 runs scored in five days, and a last session finish
June 17, PSL, Islamabad United beat Peshawar Zalmi by 15 runs
Usman Khawaja scored a hundred as Islamabad posted the highest score ever by a Pakistan team in T20 cricket
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Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
