Dubai Ports World was forced to relinquish six U.S. assets that were part of its $6.8 billion buy of British ports operator P&O in 2006 following a political furor stemming from concerns over national security.
The move brought talks for a U.S.-UAE free trade deal to a standstill, and made regional investors cautious.
"In two relatively short sweeps we've damaged in the minds of people a reputation built up over 200 years," said David Jackson, chief executive of Dubai government investment agency Istithmar.
"The U.S. talks about how 'We are the greatest capital market in the world and we are open to everybody' but the evidence is against that, whether Unocal or DP World," Jackson said.
SURPLUS LIQUIDITY
DP World's expansion into India and China and Istithmar's purchase of around 2.7 percent in Standard Chartered last year to tap the London-based bank's strong focus on Asia indicate that Asia stands to benefit from this reticence.
"We have a lot of surplus liquidity and people don't know what to do with it," said Sarmad Zok, chief executive of Kingdom Hotel Investments, owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
Zok said Gulf Arab investors have been willing to pay premiums for "trophy assets" in the west in order to get global exposure, but doing so has also cut into their returns.
Asian investments, he said, involve higher risks and higher rewards, he said, underpinning a trend among Gulf Arab companies to include Asia into billion-dollar spending sprees.
Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. is eyeing Indian power generation and natural gas projects in a $6 billion spending spree this year, while Dubai-controlled hotels group Jumeirah expects Asia to contribute up to 40 percent of its revenues by 2011.
"I think our progress into India will wallop up over a number of years," said Tim Clark, president of Emirates airline which, like Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, is adding flights to Indian cities to meet growing demand.
REVERSE GLOBALIZATION
Political risk concerns aside, Gulf Arab investors are not about to avoid the world's largest consumer market.
Global Investment House will push ahead with plans to buy a New York-based asset manager in order to tap U.S. wealth, executive vice-president of the Kuwait-based investment bank Bader al-Sumait said.
"Definitely it is not a ports issue when it comes to asset management," Sumait said.
Dubai's Damac Properties is also eyeing U.S. real estate acquisitions, following the lead of Emaar Properties the largest Arab property developer by market value, which bought U.S. John Laing Homes last year.
Kevin Zeese is Executive Director of the Campaign for Fresh Air and Clean Politics (www.FreshAirCleanPolitics.net) whose projects include Voters for Peace (www.VotersForPeace.US., True Vote (www.TrueVote.US and www.TrueVoteMD.org) and Climate Security (www.GlobalClimateSecurity.org). He is also president of Common Sense for Drug Policy (www.csdp.org).
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