ASIF Aziz is a billionaire who owns and operates major landmarks.
The London Trocadero is one of the important monuments, but who is the owner, Asif Aziz?
Who is Asif Aziz?
Asif Aziz was born in Limbe, Malawi in 1967.
He went to London when he was six years old and earned a business baccalaureate from the British American College London.
He worked for the property investment firm Morgan Grenfell Laurie before returning to Angola, Africa, in 1993.
Asif acquired his money by establishing two manufacturing companies, one of which was Golfrate Angola, which he eventually sold in 2005.
The following year, he returned to the United Kingdom and founded Criterion Capital, which acquired:
- The London Trocadero leisure complex.
- The London Pavilion (1 Piccadilly Circus).
- The Criterion Building (1 Jermyn Street).
In 2005, the Evening Standard reported that Asif bought his first property at 16.
He visited an auction with a relative stating he was 18 and bid £1.9 million for the building opposite South Kensington Tube Station.
The largest landowner in the Leicester Square-Piccadilly Circus area is Criterion Capital.
This contains 15 commercial buildings in London’s West End, Docklands, and Croydon.
In 2009, Criterion revealed plans to convert the Trocadero into a 500-room pod hotel.
Plans to establish a TK Maxx on the same land were announced in 2014, but the Crown Estate may have objected.
Asif was granted permission to convert the Trocadero into a mosque in 2023.
What is Asif Aziz’s net worth?
Asif is said to be the seventh richest Muslim in the United Kingdom.
Asif Aziz was named 12th out of 40 successful entrepreneurs by the Daily Telegraph.
As the company’s CEO, Asif owns and oversees a £3.6 billion property portfolio across the South East of England and London.
Who is Asif Aziz’s ex-wife, Tagilde Aziz?
Asif was embroiled in a legal fight with his ex-wife Tagilde worth £1.1 billion.
He claimed in 2017 that she was not entitled to any of their £1.1 billion inheritance after admitting they were never officially married.
He claims that they procured a “fake” marriage certificate in order to obtain a passport for their adoptive child.
Asif requested that a high court judge vacate a divorce decree.
Tagilde, on the other hand, contended that because the couple had been together for 20 years, she was entitled to a fair share of the £1.1 billion inheritance.
She also claimed they had a Muslim wedding ceremony in Malawi in 2002, which Asif disputed.
The divorce battle was later settled.
No details of the settlement were released.
