Yusuff Ali, the Lulu supermarket tycoon, underwent spinal surgery in Abu Dhabi two days after a helicopter he was travelling in made an emergency landing in bad weather in his hometown in southern India.
The 65-year-old chairman of the Lulu group was operated on by a team of 25 doctors led by German neurosurgeon Dr Amr El Shawarbi at Burjeel Hospital in the UAE on Tuesday, according to the company.
"Yusuff Ali is recovering well in hospital," said V Nandakumar, communications director of the Lulu Group.
The businessman was taken to Abu Dhabi from Kochi in India's Kerala state on a special flight arranged by the Abu Dhabi royal family, Mr Nandakumar said.
"Mr Ali and his family members expressed their sincere gratitude and appreciation to all well wishers and friends for their continued prayers and blessings."
Dr Shamsheer Vayalil, Mr Ali's son-in-law, travelled to Kochi on April 11 immediately after the helicopter accident to supervise his return to Abu Dhabi.
Dr Vayalil is also the founder of VPS Healthcare, which runs Burjeel hospital.
Mr Ali was in Kerala on a personal visit and was travelling by helicopter with his wife to see a relative in hospital.
The couple, two pilots and two staff members were taken to the Lakeshore hospital in Kochi, also run by the family, after the accident.
Company officials said all passengers and crew were safe and underwent medical checks.
The group said the experienced pilots decided to make a precautionary landing in a deserted spot because of a sudden deterioration in the weather and heavy rainfall.
The accident is being investigated by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, India's regulatory authority.
Local media reported that engine trouble caused the pilot to make a forced landing.
Residents who lived near the crash site helped Mr Ali and the other passengers to leave the helicopter.
Mr Ali is known as the retail king of the Middle East for his chain of hypermarkets.
He was one of the first 6,800 investors to be granted permanent residency in the UAE in 2019 as part of the golden card initiative. The programme was announced for select residents in the Emirates whose combined investments are worth Dh100 billion.
Mr Ali arrived in the UAE as a teenager to help with his uncle’s small distribution business.
He grew the business into a well-known chain of shopping malls, hypermarkets and diversified into real estate and hospitality.
Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, the business extends across 37 nations in the Gulf, Asia, South Africa, the UK and the US.
The group has a 50,000-strong workforce and an annual turnover of $7.4 billion globally.
Mr Ali is also known for his philanthropy and was conferred the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award, by the Indian government.
How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now
Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.
The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.
1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):
a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33
b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.
2. For those who have worked more than five years
c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.
Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.
How Tesla’s price correction has hit fund managers
Investing in disruptive technology can be a bumpy ride, as investors in Tesla were reminded on Friday, when its stock dropped 7.5 per cent in early trading to $575.
It recovered slightly but still ended the week 15 per cent lower and is down a third from its all-time high of $883 on January 26. The electric car maker’s market cap fell from $834 billion to about $567bn in that time, a drop of an astonishing $267bn, and a blow for those who bought Tesla stock late.
The collapse also hit fund managers that have gone big on Tesla, notably the UK-based Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust and Cathie Wood’s ARK Innovation ETF.
Tesla is the top holding in both funds, making up a hefty 10 per cent of total assets under management. Both funds have fallen by a quarter in the past month.
Matt Weller, global head of market research at GAIN Capital, recently warned that Tesla founder Elon Musk had “flown a bit too close to the sun”, after getting carried away by investing $1.5bn of the company’s money in Bitcoin.
He also predicted Tesla’s sales could struggle as traditional auto manufacturers ramp up electric car production, destroying its first mover advantage.
AJ Bell’s Russ Mould warns that many investors buy tech stocks when earnings forecasts are rising, almost regardless of valuation. “When it works, it really works. But when it goes wrong, elevated valuations leave little or no downside protection.”
A Tesla correction was probably baked in after last year’s astonishing share price surge, and many investors will see this as an opportunity to load up at a reduced price.
Dramatic swings are to be expected when investing in disruptive technology, as Ms Wood at ARK makes clear.
Every week, she sends subscribers a commentary listing “stocks in our strategies that have appreciated or dropped more than 15 per cent in a day” during the week.
Her latest commentary, issued on Friday, showed seven stocks displaying extreme volatility, led by ExOne, a leader in binder jetting 3D printing technology. It jumped 24 per cent, boosted by news that fellow 3D printing specialist Stratasys had beaten fourth-quarter revenues and earnings expectations, seen as good news for the sector.
By contrast, computational drug and material discovery company Schrödinger fell 27 per cent after quarterly and full-year results showed its core software sales and drug development pipeline slowing.
Despite that setback, Ms Wood remains positive, arguing that its “medicinal chemistry platform offers a powerful and unique view into chemical space”.
In her weekly video view, she remains bullish, stating that: “We are on the right side of change, and disruptive innovation is going to deliver exponential growth trajectories for many of our companies, in fact, most of them.”
Ms Wood remains committed to Tesla as she expects global electric car sales to compound at an average annual rate of 82 per cent for the next five years.
She said these are so “enormous that some people find them unbelievable”, and argues that this scepticism, especially among institutional investors, “festers” and creates a great opportunity for ARK.
Only you can decide whether you are a believer or a festering sceptic. If it’s the former, then buckle up.
Ordinary Virtues: Moral Order in a Divided World by Michael Ignatieff
Harvard University Press
Points tally
1. Australia 52; 2. New Zealand 44; 3. South Africa 36; 4. Sri Lanka 35; 5. UAE 27; 6. India 27; 7. England 26; 8. Singapore 8; 9. Malaysia 3
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Indoor Cricket World Cup Dubai 2017
Venue Insportz, Dubai; Admission Free
Fixtures - Open Men 2pm: India v New Zealand, Malaysia v UAE, Singapore v South Africa, Sri Lanka v England; 8pm: Australia v Singapore, India v Sri Lanka, England v Malaysia, New Zealand v South Africa
Fixtures - Open Women Noon: New Zealand v England, UAE v Australia; 6pm: England v South Africa, New Zealand v Australia
CHATGPT%20ENTERPRISE%20FEATURES
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