The heiress of Françoise Bettencourt Meyers has seen her fortune fall more than almost anyone else in the world this year, but she is still investing in French entrepreneurs.
Tethys Invest, the family’s investment fund, plans to acquire a stake of around 13% in Septeo in a deal that values the software provider used by notaries, lawyers and human resources departments at more than €3 billion (R$ 18.4 billion).
Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC will take a similar stake, while private equity firm Hg will retain the majority.
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The relatively unknown software company, based near Montpellier, is one of the few companies to receive support from Tethys Invest in recent years, almost all of which have deep roots in France and local founders.
The investment vehicle, partly financed by dividends from L’Oreal, has picked up the pace of business despite a 26% drop this year in the cosmetics company’s share price.
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Bettencourt Meyers, 71, is the largest individual shareholder, with a nearly 35% stake in the beauty products empire founded by her grandfather.
She is one of a handful of ultra-wealthy French citizens whose wealth has grown amid global demand for high-end makeup, clothing and jewelry.
But his wealth has fallen this year amid a sharp slowdown in China.
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The heiress, who shuns the spotlight and was for a long time the richest woman in the world, has seen her net worth fall by US$26 billion (R$151 billion) since the beginning of the year, to US$73.7 billion (R $428.71 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Only LVMH founder Bernard Arnault, 75, who lost almost US$40 billion (R$232.68 billion), had a greater loss among the 500 richest people in the world.
In this context, Tethys Invest is expanding its portfolio, which now includes stakes in at least 10 companies in the healthcare, education, fashion and insurance sectors.
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All are French, except for The Row, the clothing brand owned by sisters Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, which they invested in earlier this year.
Tethys Invest presents itself as a long-term financial investor in “entrepreneurial projects” and is overseen by Bettencourt Meyers and her husband, Jean-Pierre Meyers, with the help of their two sons, Jean-Victor, 38, and Nicolas , of 36.
A representative declined to comment.
Since its creation in 2016, Tethys Invest has accelerated its transactions.
It invested in French insurer April Sante Prevoyance in 2023 as part of a group of minority shareholders who came in following KKR & Co.’s acquisition of a majority stake.
In 2022, Tethys Invest acquired a stake in decade-old digital fashion retailer Sezane, which was founded by Frenchwoman Morgane Sezalory, who also counts private equity fund General Atlantic as an investor.
It has also backed French vaccine and animal medicine maker Ceva Sante Animale, and in 2020 increased its investment in Galileo Global Education, a private higher education provider with 61 schools in 18 countries, founded by Frenchman Marc-Francois Mignot-Mahon .
The Bettencourt Meyers clan also invests in French private hospital operator Elsan and medical diagnostics company Sebia, as well as crop protection company M2i and biotechnology company HTL Biotechnology.
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