M.A Yusuff Ali

Chairman – LuLu Group International

Net Worth – US $4.9 Billion

Yusuff Ali Musaliam Veettil Abdul Kader (M.A Yusuff Ali) is a very popular Indian billionaire and businessman. He is the managing director and chairman of LuLu Group International, the very popular Group of Industries that includes LuLu International Shopping Mall and LuLu Hypermarket chain across the world. LuLu Group International’s annual revenue is around US$7.4 billion.

M.A Yusuff Ali is ranked No. 1 according to Forbes among the top 100 businessmen in the Arab World in the list of 2018. Its LuLu Bolgatty International convention Centre that is situated on the Bolgatty Island is counted among the largest convention centres in South Asia.

M. A. Yusuff Ali Musaliam has a net worth of $5.1 Billion (Rupees – 38,004 Crores), making the man among the 100 richest people in India.

He is the CEO and chairman of LuLu Group International, which owns the LuLu Hypermarket chain worldwide as well as the LuLu International Shopping Mall.

He also known as Yusuff Ali M. A, is an Indian businessman based in the United Arab Emirates.

LuLu Group International, with a US$7.4 billion annual turnover, hires the most Indians outside of India.

The Scotland Yard Building in London was bought by Yusuff Ali in 2016.

He owned 9.37% of Cochin International Airport as of 2013.

On Bolghatty Island, the Lulu Bolgatty International Convention Centre, along with the 3rd largest Grand Hyatt branded hotel, is one of the largest convention centers in South Asia.

He moved to Abu Dhabi in 1973 to enter his uncle’s small distribution company after growing up in a village in Kerala, India.

A member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family is said to have purchased a 20% stake in LuLu for $1 billion in April 2020.

He also contributed $6.8 million to the Covid-19 pandemic relief effort.

Yusuff Ali was born in the Thrissur district on November 15, 1955, to a Muslim family.

Yusuff, the Middle East’s retail leader, oversees the $7.4 billion LuLu Group International, which has 193 stores in the Gulf and elsewhere.

Yusuff was named the No. 1 Indian business owner in the Arab World in 2018.

In Kerala, he constructed and donated a 1,400-bed treatment facility.

Education

Nattika, where he completed his schooling, awarded him a diploma in Business Management and Administration.

Career

He expanded the group’s import and wholesale distribution, as well as entered the retail industry with the launch of Lulu Hypermarket.

The Waldorf Astoria in Scotland and the Great Scotland Yard Hotel, which was once the headquarters of the United Kingdom’s Metropolitan Police, are among the company’s other holdings.

He bought 4.99% of the Catholic Syrian Bank (CSB) in Thrissur in 2013 and raised his interest in the Federal Bank in Aluva to 4.47% in 2014.

For about $85 million, he purchased a 10% stake in East India Company, a UK-based trading firm, as well as a 40% stake in its fine foods subsidiary.

Private & early life

He moved to Abu Dhabi in 1973 after finishing his studies to work for his paternal uncle, M K Abdullah, the chairman and founder of the LuLu Group of companies.

In the 1990s, he opened his first Lulu Hypermarket, at a time when the UAE’s retail sector was undergoing a significant transformation, with conventional groceries and supermarkets giving way to massive neighborhood stores and hypermarkets.

Though Continent changed the face of retail in Dubai in 1995, Yusuff Ali took supervision of the retail sector in Abu Dhabi by launching LuLu Hypermarket.

He lives in Abu Dhabi, UAE, with his wife and 3 children.

Sabeena, his eldest daughter, is married to Shamsheer Vayalil, a billionaire.

Shafeena, his second daughter, is married to Adeeb Ahamed, who is the CEO of Lulu International Exchange and 2014 Holdings, the group’s hospitality investment arm.

Philantgropy

The LuLu Group partnered with Dubai Cares to adopt schools in Gaza and Nepal as part of its global CSR policy.

Yusuff Ali donated and took the initiative to open an 8.3-acre multi-faith funeral center for the Indian community in Sharjah.

Via LuLu Hypermarkets, he has also taken the initiative to sell and encourage organic goods grown by the UAE’s special needs community.

He generously contributed to the Gujarat earthquake relief effort, the Asian Tsunami Relief Fund, and typhoon and flood relief efforts around the world.

In August 2018, he donated Rs 9.5 crores for flood relief and rehabilitation in Kerala.

He works to ensure the social, economic, and religious well-being of Indian expatriates in the Persian Gulf region.

He was instrumental in securing cremation grounds for the Hindu population in the Gulf region and seeking land for the Christian community in the area to establish churches.

M. A. Yusuff Ali also assisted Indians during the Persian Gulf amnesty era, when hundreds of Indians lost their jobs.

He also assisted in the rehabilitation of people who had lost their lives as a result of the Calicut market fire.

In the event of the 2019 Kerala floods, Yusuff Ali has vowed to donate Rs 50 million (Dh2.5 million) to the flood-ravaged south Indian state.

Awards