Dikran Izmirlian

Swiss based businessman. Chairman and chief executive of Alimenta, a company that has built up a large interest in the Gambian peanut market. Alimenta has established effective control of the processing and export of peanuts, in a country where 70% of the population relies on the annual harvest for their livelihood.

Also owns London Bridge Holdings, a Bahamas based company. LBH owns London City Hall and leases it to the Mayors office of London on a 25 year lease. Izmirlian also owns the rest of the 13 acre site City Hall sits upon, which is the second largest commercial development in London and lies on the city's south bank, between the Tower Bridge and the London Bridge.

Has a son, Sarkis Izmirlian, registered as living on Paradise Island in the Bahamas, where he has citizenship.

In 1994, Dikran established the Izmirlian Foundation in Yerevan, to support education and business. The foundation provides loans of up to $500,000 to encourage local enterprises.

Sources

• The Peanut Tycoon Who Owns Livingstone's City Hall (article), by John Waples and Dan Box Sunday Times (London) May 23, 2004