Ginette Heibron Moulin is 87 years old, and she just made bank in a very, very big way – making her the oldest newcomer to the Forbes list in history.

Using a holding company, Moulin and her family owned 100% of a department store empire that stretched from Groupe Galeries La Fayette in Paris to their swanky new asian home-base in Beijing.  250 high-end stores are now under the Groupe Galeries La Fayette umbrella. In 2012, the Groupe’s sales hit R40 billion.

They also owned a 50% stake in Monoprix. And seeing as they already owned so much other stuff, they decided to sell their stake to competitors, The Casino Group, for R18 billion. That simple transaction put them firmly on Forbes’ radar.

To think, it all started in 1894, when Ginette’s grandfather and his cousin opened a simple haberdasher selling ribbons and silks on the corner of Rue La Fayette in Paris.

Moulin and her family are now worth over R30 billion.

[Source : Forbes]