L’Oréal has achieved a market capitalisation of around €203bn, overtaking French luxury giant LVMH to become one of France’s most valuable listed company.
It is the first time a non-luxury company has claimed a top spot on Euronext Paris since 2017, the historical stock exchange of France, according to data from London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), which was shared exclusively with Reuters.
At the close of trading on Tuesday 15 September, LVMH’s market cap was €201bn.
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L’Oréal shares have risen 5.65% over the past year, while LVMH’s have fallen by an estimated 35%.
It follows L'Oréal reporting stellar trading for the first half of 2026, with its dermatological division, housing CeraVe and Vichy, driving bumper sales.
Sales at the French beauty giant reached €23.77bn, up 6.8% on a like-for-like basis and 5.8% reported, while net profit amounted to €3.9bn, up 4.7%.
L'Oréal has also secured early access to a 50-year exclusive beauty licence with Kering for the Gucci brand, effective on 1 July 2027, which was part of a larger acquisition of Kering Beauté.
LVMH, meanwhile, has seen more tepid trading in the first half of the year, with sales in the company’s perfumes and cosmetics business, which contributes 10% of LVMH’s total sales, at €3.9bn in H1.
This was flat on an organic basis and down 4% on a reported basis compared to the same period in 2025, due to currency impacts.
Profit from recurring operations declined 2% year-on-year to €417m and operating margin improved 20 basis points to 10.6%.
Bernard Arnault, Chairman and CEO of luxury giant LVMH, has also slipped out of the top ten list of the world's biggest fortunes last week as US technology tycoons take over.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the richest people in the world, Arnault dropped to 11th place last week, falling behind investor Warren Buffett.
Cosmetics Business has contacted L’Oréal and LVMH for a comment.
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