Shares in beauty group L’Oreal surged the most in seven years on speculation that the death of the founding family’s matriarch, Liliane Bettencourt, could clear up the cosmetics maker’s ownership through a takeover or a buyback.

A court in France has acquitted a former ally of Nicolas Sarkozy on charges of swindling millions of euro from France’s richest woman — L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt — by taking advantage of her weak mental state.

A FRENCH family drama worthy of a soap opera landed in court yesterday, as the daughter of France’s richest women questioned whether her mother has lost her mind and frittered away a fortune on a man known for befriending high-society celebrities.

ONE of the world’s richest women appears to have taken L’Oreal’s most famous slogan “because you’re worth it” a step too far and caused a huge financial rift with her daughter.