20th annual Asian Business Awards, London

The 20th annual Asian Business Awards (ABA), which honours outstanding business leaders in the UK, took place on Friday in London’s Park Plaza hotel. The night also saw the launch of the 2017 Asian Rich List, which profiles the top 101 highest earners in the British Asian community. The compilation is the definitive guide to Asian wealth in Britain and a window to the economic achievements of a community.

Surinder Arora, founder and chairman of the Arora Group collected the prestigious Asian Business of the Year award. The Arora Group is one of the UK’s largest private owner operator of hotels. Other winners on the night included Young Entrepreneur of the Year Aly Esmail, CEO of SME Group; Entrepreneur of the Year Subodh Agrawal; Chairman of Euromax Capital and the Business Personality Award winner Sri Prakash Lohia, Founder and Chairman of Indorama Group. It was a double celebration for Lohia who also ranked highly on the Asian Rich List, which was launched on the night. Lohia remained in 3rd position on the list of the UK’s wealthiest Asians, behind the Hinduja Family and Lakshmi Mittal at numbers 1 and 2 respectively.

The evening was hosted by BBC Radio Five Live presenter Nihal Arthanayake and welcomed politicians, celebrities, influencers, entrepreneurs, business leaders and philanthropists to celebrate the diverse spectrum of Asian business and the significant impact made to British economy and society. Guests included Lord Tariq Ahmed, Lord Navnit Dholakia, Lord Jitesh Gadhia, Naughty Boy, Gurinder Chadha, Amrita Acharia and Riz Lateef.