Azeem Ibrahim, one of Britain’s youngest self-made multi-millionaires, has won the prestigious Lloyds TSB Business and Commerce Excellence Jewel Award 2008 at The Palace Hotel in Manchester.

The aim of the Jewel Awards is to celebrate the positive contribution of Asians to the social and economic fabric of the country.

Glaswegian Ibrahim, 32, has accumulated his wealth since 2004 when he set up a leading e-commerce facility selling international maritime, transport and logistical insurance online. He is also the owner of ECM Holdings, which owns the European Commerce and Mercantile Bank and other financial concerns.

His various enterprises have earned him an estimated worth of around £58m. ECM Investment is his most recent venture, a private equity hedge fund that has outperformed all the other big institutions, netting over 40% a year on investment. The core strategy behind the fund is to negotiate only at the highest level, cutting out all middlemen and providing multiple concrete sources of income using an exclusive list of high-level contacts. Ibrahim aims to target high-net-worth individuals, particularly in the Gulf and the sovereign wealth funds, with a view to taking his fund to 1 billion pounds within the next ten years. Mr. Ibrahim has recently advised leaders of the Gulf States, as well as The Prime Minister of Turkey regarding attracting foreign investment into the country.

Mr. Ibrahim said: "I am pleased to win such a great prize. The Lloyds TSB Jewel Award has a history of recognising outstanding individuals in the Asian community and I am honoured to be this year’s recipient."

Ibrahim was inaugurated on to The Sunday Times Scots Rich List last year, and is also the founding chairman of a number of charities in the UK and abroad. Most recently he launched, the Ibrahim Foundation, a private grant-giving foundation which will provide funding for community and charity works after inviting applications from the public.