Yusuff Ali Musaliam Veettil Abdul Kader (born 15 November 1955), known as M. A. Yusuff Ali, is an Indian businessman based in Abu Dhabi and the chairman and managing director of LuLu Group International. Starting in his uncle’s small trading firm in 1973, he built LuLu into the largest hypermarket and supermarket chain in the Gulf, with operations in more than twenty countries. Forbes ranks him as the wealthiest person from Kerala. He is among the largest employers of Indians abroad and one of the most influential figures of the Indian community in the Middle East.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Yusuff Ali Musaliam Veettil Abdul Kader |
| Born | 15 November 1955, Nattika, Thrissur district, Kerala |
| Age | 70 |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Position | Chairman and Managing Director, LuLu Group International |
| Based in | Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates |
| Net worth | About US$5.8 billion (Forbes, 2026) |
| Honours | Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (2005); Padma Shri (2008) |
| Spouse | Shabira Yusuff Ali |
| Children | 3 daughters |
Early Life
Yusuff Ali was born at Nattika, a coastal village in Thrissur district, into a family of traders. He went to school there and at Karanchira and then studied business management in Gujarat, where relatives had a business. On 31 December 1973, aged eighteen, he arrived in Abu Dhabi to join the import and distribution company run by his paternal uncle, M. K. Abdullah.
Building LuLu
The firm, EMKE, supplied frozen food and other goods to small shops. Yusuff Ali developed its import and wholesale side and set up cold stores and processing plants. He travelled to Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong to study how modern supermarkets worked.
He opened the group’s first supermarket in Abu Dhabi in 1990. The timing looked reckless: Iraq had just invaded Kuwait, and many foreign businesses were pulling out of the Gulf. He stayed and went on investing, a decision that earned him the lasting regard of the rulers of Abu Dhabi. The first LuLu Hypermarket followed in Dubai in 2000. The name comes from the Arabic word for pearl.
Over the next two decades the chain spread across the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain, and then to Egypt, Malaysia and Indonesia, supported by its own sourcing and food-processing operations in many countries. The group employs tens of thousands of people, a large proportion of them from Kerala.
In 2020 an Abu Dhabi state investment company bought a significant stake in the business. In November 2024 the Gulf retail arm, Lulu Retail Holdings, was listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange after a share sale that raised about 1.7 billion dollars, the largest in the United Arab Emirates that year.
India
In 2013 he opened LuLu Mall in Kochi, at the time one of the largest shopping malls in the country. Malls and hypermarkets have followed in Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kozhikode and other cities. The group also owns convention centres and hotels in Kerala, among them the Grand Hyatt at Bolgatty in Kochi, and he is a shareholder in several Kerala-based banks and in the Cochin and Kannur airport companies.
Public Roles
He was the first expatriate elected to the board of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and later became its vice-chairman. He is vice-chairman of Norka Roots, the Kerala government’s agency for non-resident Keralites, and has served on the Prime Minister’s advisory council for overseas Indians. Abu Dhabi has conferred its highest civilian award on him, and he was the first Indian to be granted Saudi Arabia’s premium residency.
Philanthropy
He is known in Kerala for acts of personal generosity: paying the “blood money” needed to free Indian workers sentenced to death in the Gulf, clearing the debts of people in distress, and funding housing, hospitals, schools and places of worship of different faiths. He has given large sums to relief after floods and landslides in Kerala.
Personal Life
He is married to Shabira, and they have three daughters. His sons-in-law, the healthcare entrepreneur Shamsheer Vayalil and Adeeb Ahamed, are well-known businessmen in their own right. In April 2021 he survived the forced landing of his helicopter in a marsh at Kochi.
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was M. A. Yusuff Ali born?
M. A. Yusuff Ali was born on 15 November 1955 in Nattika, Thrissur district, Kerala and is 70 years old.
What is M. A. Yusuff Ali’s occupation?
Occupation: Businessman.
What honours has M. A. Yusuff Ali received?
Pravasi Bharatiya Samman (2005); Padma Shri (2008).
Featured image: M. A. Yusuff Ali at LuLu Group’s corporate office, August 2023. Photo by Anishydros, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
