Who is Yusuffali, the founder of UAE-based Lulu Group?
One of Kerala's richest entrepreneurs, the row over purported namaz at his latest Lulu Mall, in Lucknow, proved just a minor blip.
On a muggy July afternoon, 42-year-old Amina and her sister Maimoona, 50, waited in front of Muhyudheen Juma Masjid at Nattika in Kerala’s Thrissur district, clutching a sheaf of petitions. From Malappuram, they were waiting to meet their benefactor.
“I want money to build a house; my sister is hoping to get some help to repay the debt she incurred from the wedding of her daughter. We have heard Yusuffali helps people in distress,” says Amina, as they stand outside the gates of the grand mosque built by the UAE-based businessman at his Nattika village.
Earlier this month, Musaliam Veettil Abdul Kader Yusuffali or M A Yusuffali made national headlines when his UAE-based Lulu Group opened a mall in Lucknow. Ali, who drove around the newly inaugurated mall in a buggy with Yogi Adityanath, thanked the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister for the “blessings” and for ensuring a “peaceful environment” in the state. With that, Ali, a seasoned businessman whose Lulu Group operates in over 20 countries, across West Asia, South Asia, the US and Europe, and has an annual turnover of around $8 billion, had stepped into new territory — its Lucknow operation the first for the group in a northern state.
The Lucknow mall, built with an investment of Rs 2,000 crore, is part of a Rs 13,000-crore India expansion plan announced in 2018. After Kochi, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Thrissur, this is the group’s fifth mall in India. As of 2022, the Lulu Group has 235 stores, employing 60,000 people, around half of them from Kerala. The group has also diversified into the hospitality, food processing and real estate sectors.
But for those in Kerala, Yusuffali is more than “the richest Malayali in the world”, the retail king who holds his own even when he is with heads of nations. For many in his home state, he is their last resort, a certainty and an assurance when all else fails.
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