Asif Aziz

Asif Aziz is a London-based billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist. As the founder and Chief Executive of Criterion Capital, he is known for owning and operating key landmarks including the London Trocadero and Criterion Building in Piccadilly Circus. Aziz is also the founder of family based charity the Aziz Foundation.

Early life
Born in Malawi in 1967, Aziz moved to London at the age of six. He acquired his first London property in the 1980s, whilst still at school. He graduated from the British American College London with a business baccalaureate.

Career
In an interview with City AM, Aziz said that, "When I was still in school, I was intrigued by the London property market. My first ‘real’ job was at Morgan Grenfell Laurie where I learnt from the best in the commercial property industry. My first actual job was at McDonald’s flipping burgers." Aziz added, "I fell in love with property when I was just 16 and made my first acquisition."

According to Private Eye, quoting Labour MP Siobhan McDonagh, "Aged 16, [Aziz] is said to have turned up in London one day, out of nowhere, to buy property in an auction. He has been accumulating more and more property ever since."

Aziz worked for property investment company Morgan Grenfell Laurie before moving back to Angola, Africa in 1993 where he made his fortune through the setting up of two food manufacturing businesses, including Golfrate Angola, which he sold in 2005. That same year he returned to the UK and established Criterion Capital, which acquired the London Trocadero leisure complex, the London Pavilion (1 Piccadilly Circus) and The Criterion Building (1 Jermyn Street). Today, Criterion Capital are the biggest landowner in the Leicester Square - Piccadilly Circus corridor.

As CEO of Criterion Capital, he owns and manages a £3.6bn property portfolio across London and the South East of England, including 15 commercial buildings in the West End of London, the Docklands and Croydon.



In 2005, the Evening Standard reported that he bought his first property aged 16 at an auction he visited with a relative, after saying he was 18. He bid £1.9m for the building opposite South Kensington tube station.

Through Criterion, unveiled plans to turn the Trocadero into a 500-room pod hotel in 2009. In 2014, plans were also unveiled to open a TK Maxx retail store on the Trocadero site, though the media reported possible opposition from the Crown Estate.

Aziz is reputed to be Britain's seventh richest Muslim in the UK. The Daily Telegraph ranked Asif Aziz as number 12 out of 40 in its list of successful entrepreneurs.

Aziz has been criticised by the political magazine Private Eye for using companies registered in the Isle of Man to buy properties in London, especially pubs, and then close them down to replace them with more lucrative housing developments. In 2020, The Times asked if Aziz was "the meanest landlord in Britain", due to the way he had treated tenants during the pandemic. In 2022 he was criticised by Novara Media for continuing to buy community spaces like bars and nurseries and redeveloping them into luxury apartments.