M. A. Yusuff Ali

Yusuff Ali M. A. is a UAE based Indian billionaire, businessman and Padma Shri award winner from Nattika, Thrissur district, Kerala. He is the Chairman and Managing Director of LuLu Group International that owns the Lulu Hypermarket chain worldwide and LuLu International Shopping Mall.

• Middle East retail king M.A. Yusuff Ali presides over $8.4 billion (revenue) LuLu Group, with 178 stores in the Gulf region and elsewhere.
• Hailing from a village in Kerala state in south India, Yusuff Ali left for Abu Dhabi in 1973 to join his uncle’s small distribution business.
• The group’s hospitality arm’s assets include the Caledonian, a former Victorian railway hotel, overlooking Edinburgh Castle.
• Yusuff Ali has converted the Great Scotland Yard, the former headquarters of the U.K. Metropolitan Police, into a luxury hotel managed by the Hyatt.
• Yusuff Ali is investing back home in a big way, earmarking more than $2 billion to build hotels, malls and convention centers, among much else.