Meet Yusuff Ali, the Indian who bought London’s Great Scotland Yard

For those of us who have read the Sherlock Holmes books, the Great Scotland Yard will be a familiar building. The iconic red brick edifice served as the first headquarters of the London Police till the late 1800s and was where the famous Jack the Ripper case was investigated. It has also been seen in Hollywood movies such as Skyfall and Harry Potter. [caption id=“attachment_2372018” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Thhe Great Scotland Yard and Yusuff Ali. Reuters/yusuffali.com[/caption] Soon, this heritage structure, like so many around the world, will become a luxury hotel. The Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Group International has entered into a £110 million agreement with a London developer to build a 5-star hotel in the British capital.The Lulu Group International in partnership with Galliard Homes will build the 92,000 sq ft hotel within the Edwardian building. But the striking part of this deal is the fact that the Great Scotland Yard is bought by an Indian. You read that right, An Indian-based business is the owner of London’s Great Scotland Yard! The business group that bought the building and plan to convert it into a luxury hotel belongs to a man from Kerala, Yusuff Ali M A, who is the managing director LuLu group. Who is Yusuff Ali MA ? Born in 1955, in the Thrissur district of Kerala, Yusuff Ali grew up in India before moving to the Abu Dhabi to try his luck in business. One of the richest Indians worldwide, Yusuff Ali is often called the ‘Retail king of Abu Dhabi’. He is currently the 39th wealthiest Indian and the 737th richest in the world, with a personal wealth of $2.8 billion and LuLu group’s, according to his Forbes profile. How much is LuLu Group worth? Yusuff Ali’s official website says that the LuLu Group has an annual turnover of $5.5 billion globally. The company began as a small food wholesaling and importing business in Abu Dhabi in the 1970s and over the years has transformed into global retail giant with about 35,000 employees from 37 different countries, including UK, UAE, Benin, Oman, Hong Kong, Thailand, India and, of course, Kerala, according to a Scroll report. Apart from 114 hypermarkets, supermarkets and grocery outlets, mostly in the Middle East, he also has a sizable amount of investment in his home state of Kerala with a LuLu mall and two Marriott hotels in Cochin, says Forbes. Padma Shri Yusuff Ali Yusuff Ali is a recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri award, one of India’s highest civilian honours, by then president Pratibha Patil in 2008. He was the first Non-resident Indian from the Gulf and the Middle East countries to receive the Padma Shri, according to his official website.  He has also been award with the ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award’, the highest Indian Government Award given to Non-Resident Indians in 2005. The Great Scotland Yard Hotel plans LuLu Group’s has great plans for the proposed 92,000 square foot hotel at Great Scotland Yard, which will be called The Great Scotland Yard. It is due to open its doors in the first-quarter of 2017 and the most expensive suite could cost as much as £10,000 a night. The Steigenberger Hotel Group is set to manage the luxury site once it opens, according to The Telegraph. Don O’Sullivan, managing director of Galliard Homes, which had acquired a 125-year lease to the property two years ago, was quoted by them as saying, “This will be one of London’s most luxurious five-star hotels." (With agency inputs)