Middle East Oil Money Goes Shopping In Asia

Some interesting tidbits in this International Herald Tribune Story...

* Banks estimate that Middle East buyers will snap up some $20 billion to $30 billion in Asian assets in the next year, with a focus on real estate and industrial companies.
* By comparison, a 2006 report by the U.S. Congressional Research Service found that Middle Eastern countries accounted for less than 1% of $1.5 trillion of foreign direct investment in American businesses and real estate, behind the Netherlands and France.
* Trade between the Middle East and Asia more than doubled between 2000 and 2005, reaching $240 billion last year.
* Many bankers say Middle Eastern investors who are focusing on Asia are practical: they are responding in part to the backlash that forced Dubai's port company to sell off American holdings after it bought the British port operator P&O. After "the Dubai ports fiasco, they're saying 'We don't need the hassle'" of investing in the United States.

What does this all mean? Asian stocks are going to get EVEN HOTTER. That probably comes as no surprise to Red-Hot Asian Tiger subscribers.

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