Lulu Group’s Yusuff Ali clears loan of Kerala woman who was evicted from home; Know all about him

A Kerala woman lost her home due to an unpaid loan after her husband abandoned her. Lulu Group Chairman MA Yusuff Ali intervened, repaying the loan and providing additional financial support.

A woman in Kerala was forced to leave her home after she failed to pay a loan of Rs 8 lakh. In order to construct her home in 2019, she obtained a loan of Rs 4 lakh from Manappuram Finance, a Kerala-based non-banking financial institution. However, in 2021, her husband abandoned her and their two children, which halted the loan repayments. The amount owed increased as interest accumulated over time. As a result, after several warnings were ignored, the NBFC started the foreclosure process.

The family of three was left homeless after the private institution's representatives changed the locks on her home. The event garnered media attention and infuriated the local population. In addition to repaying the woman's loan, LuLu Group Chairman MA Yusuff Ali gave her an extra Rs 10 lakh to assist her establish a fixed deposit after learning about the issue.

Who is MA Yusuff Ali?

On November 15, 1955, MA Yusuff Ali was born in Kerala. In order to work for his paternal uncle's modest distribution company, which he helped grow into the billion-dollar conglomerate it is today, he relocated to Abu Dhabi in 1973. He earned a certificate in Business Management and Administration after completing his education at St. Xavier's High School in Karanchira.

Yusuff Ali is the chairman and managing director of the LuLu Group, which runs the LuLu International Shopping Mall and the global LuLu Hypermarket network. The group has four malls in India, with Kochi being the first, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, and Lucknow coming next.

Yusuff Ali, dubbed the "Middle East retail king," is worth $7.4 billion, according to Forbes. Forbes Middle East ranked Yusuff Ali No. 1 on its list of the Top 100 Indian Business Owners in the Arab World in 2018.

He was also the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Second Vice-Chairman. He has three daughters with his wife, Shabira Yusuff Ali. Shabeena, their eldest daughter, is wed to Shamsheer Vayalil, a multibillionaire. Adeeb Ahamed, the CEO of Lulu International Exchange and Twenty14 Holdings, is the husband of their second daughter, Shafeena. Shifa, the youngest daughter, is wed to Sharoon Shamsudheen, who owns prosperous IT companies.