Doing Business : Caravans of Persian Gulf Money Return to Lebanon : Kuwaitis, Saudis and Egyptians eagerly invest in banks, real estate and commercial ventures in the newly stable nation.

BEIRUT —  His string tie and finger-licking-good chicken say America all the way, but in Beirut the colonel is Kuwaiti.

And Kentucky Fried Chicken shares its red and white storefront with the shocking pink premises of Baskin-Robbins here in the recovering capital of Lebanon. The two businesses are concessions owned by Americana, a Kuwaiti company representing 44 businesses--many of them U.S.-owned.

Beirut’s Pizza Huts answer to Egyptian and Saudi owners, who have a Lebanese partner. Two Pizza Huts are already open, with 18 more to come. Confidence in the future of Lebanon--which for most of the 1970s and ‘80s did not appear to have much of one--has convinced Pizza Hut to invest $40 million over the next five years, the operators say.

Lebanon is a fresh market, grab it now or lose the future. That’s the line at this end of the Mediterranean. If you have money, come here and do something, advises Nadwa Ghannoum, head of the investment department at a Beirut bank.

“This is a new style of Arab investment,” said Marwan Iskandar, a leading Lebanese economist. “Before, real estate was the main interest (in Lebanon). This (commercial) development speaks of good expectations for the market and shows that Lebanon is accepted, in principle, as a safe place.”

Spearheading all this business in business is Lebanon’s billionaire prime mover and prime minister, Rafik Hariri.

What’s good for a hut is good for a hotel, and Kuwaitis now own two of Beirut’s best-known hostelries: the war-shattered but still standing Holiday Inn, and the Commodore Hotel, once Beirut’s press headquarters and now owned by the Emir of Kuwait himself. The Holiday Inn will be renamed and refurbished by a Japanese firm with a 25-year operating concession, developers say.

Meanwhile, Beirut’s fast-recovering banking sector hums with activity spurred by Persian Gulf cash. At one Beirut bank, Gulf clients soared from a paltry 50 two years ago to 500 at present. Confidence in Lebanon nets the Lebanon & Gulf Bank between $52,000 and $75,000 in transfers each week. The incoming hard currencies are converted into Lebanese-pound fixed accounts, where they earn a hefty 16%.

For Arabs who adhere to the rules of Islam--which forbid interest-earning endeavors--investing in Lebanese real estate continues to be a gold mine of an alternative. Residences and hotels in traditional Christian resort areas such as Broummana and Beirut Meri are selling as soon as they go on the market. Heavier plungers are buying huge tracts of land for condominiums, sports clubs and beach complexes.

“Movers and shakers from the Gulf are flocking to my office with feasibility studies for real estate projects,” said an investment banker who, typical of private businessmen in the Middle East, asked to remain anonymous. He described one project as a seaside complex so big and so expensive that there will be no parallel in the region.

The Gulf Arabs’ long love affair with Lebanon has a genesis that even their petrodollars can’t buy--the weather. The mountains and cool air leave the Gulf Arabs, who have summered here since the 1950s, just the way they like, high and dry, rather than suffering in the steamy heat at home.

For many Kuwaitis, coming back to postwar Lebanon is coming home. They vacationed here before civil war tore Lebanon apart in 1975, triggering a series of conflicts that continued to the beginning of this decade. Of about 6,000 to 7,000 Kuwaitis who own property in Lebanon, 60% to 70% reportedly have contacted their agents and lawyers in Beirut and given them the go-ahead to start repairs.

Gulf Arabs appear delighted to see Lebanon back on its feet. They didn’t like Europe, and Europe didn’t like them. Nothing was agreeable--not the weather, not the customs, not the languages.

Here in Lebanon, they gamble and party. If they lose, at least they have a good time doing it. In the West they played the stock markets and got burned. Real estate speculation in the flagging Western markets, especially Houston and London, also cost them dearly.

The Lebanese are doing everything possible to roll out the carpet--quite literally--for the return of the Gulfies. Hundreds of buildings in Beirut are Gulf-owned. Many fell prey to squatters during the war. Now the government is moving quickly to pay off the illegal tenants and get them out.

As of 1993, all Gulf Arabs could enter Lebanon without a visa, a courtesy not accorded other Arabs. Although the law is not reciprocal, the Lebanese do not seem to mind. The priority is to bring back the Gulfies and their money--and relieve them of a bit of it.

Lebanon never gave up on its old friends. During the Gulf War, when no one else would handle Kuwaiti dinars, Lebanon faithfully accepted transactions in the Kuwaiti currency. “Where are you? London? Sure we’ll send you money,” said a Lebanese lawyer re-enacting conversations with his Kuwaiti clients. He says he often moved $100,000 a day during the war that saw Iraqi forces occupy Kuwait and drive many of its moneyed citizens abroad.

Today’s Kuwaiti has more savvy than the one who invested in Lebanon in the ‘60s and ‘70s, before the Lebanese civil war. Another lawyer with Kuwaiti clients said: “They used to say, ‘Take this money and buy a building.’ They didn’t care. They didn’t check. Now they want every penny accounted for.

Business-minded Kuwaitis come here personally and make their own deals. One Kuwaiti beamed as he announced to his investment banker that he had bought himself a piece of land in Sofar, a mountain resort village 15 miles east of Beirut.

“Are you going to build a villa?” the banker asked.

The Kuwaiti made a sweeping gesture and answered, “No, a small city.”