Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, chairman of Dubai World, a holding company that holds a stake in Nakheel, said the project would be “one of a kind,” the Emirati news agency WAM reported.

Located along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula, Dubai is one of the seven emirates and is the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The new tower project is actually part of an entire town development – known as the Nakheel Harbour & Tower project – that will cover 665 acres, and that will include “a tower which could reach one kilometer in height,” Sulayem said when the announcement was made. The multibillion-dollar development will be home to more than 55,000 people and will serve as the workplace for another 45,000. The target date for completion is 2020.

“There is nothing like it in Dubai,” Sulayem said. “Nakheel Harbour & Tower is located in the heart of ‘new Dubai’, where we have focused on creating a true community, a location for living, working, relaxing and entertaining, for art and culture. All of this is concentrated in one area.”

The world’s tallest building – the yet-to-be-completed Burj Dubai tower reached a height of 2,257 feet (688 meters) at the start of September and is still growing, according to developers Emaar Properties PJSC. It now boasts 160 stories, the highest skyscraper in the world, Emaar said. Construction began on Sept. 21, 2004 and is expected to be completed and ready for occupation in September 2009.

The total budget for the Burj Dubai project is about $4.1 billion. The tower is part of a development known as the new “Downtown Dubai,” a development that’s estimated to cost $20 billion.

Nakheel is best known for constructing man-made islands that, when finished, will add more than 600 miles of coastline to Dubai. The first island, shaped like a palm tree and called Palm Jumeirah, will be home to private villas, mansions, luxury apartment towers, and a 60-story Trump hotel. Nakheel is also constructing two other palm-shaped islands, a 300-island archipelago called The World (shaped to mimic the continents), and more than a dozen other large-scale developments across Dubai. All of these developments are being populated with hotels, restaurants, and shopping malls that it will also manage.

Source: Dubai Developer Nakheel Going For World Record With Newly Planned Kilometer-Tall Tower

Ever see that show on The Learning Channel called Trading Spaces? It has two neighbors swap houses for a couple days to remodel each other’s rooms. There have been some surprising results, from an all black room (which was not what the owners had in mind) to wonderfully tasteful decor.

That’s why it’ll be interesting when two countries swap sectors: the UK could be the next oil frontier and Dubai could be the next major hotel owner in Europe.

Let’s start with the more unusual of the two…

The UK has been beholden to imported natural gas since 2004, and could be a net importer of oil by 2010 once the North Sea reserves really begin to run dry. North Sea oil accounts for 98.5% of UK production. Onshore oil fields produce only 24,000 barrels of oil a day.

To give you an idea of just how little that amount is, 24,000 barrels of oil is less than two-minute’s worth of U.S. oil consumption.

But now there’s a push to expand the UK’s onshore oil industry. In May, 97 new licences were issued for onshore oil and gas exploration. The BBC notes that five years ago, only five were awarded.

Let’s face it, though… The UK will never be the next Brazil, who was lucky enough to find a massive oil reserve right off its coast. But the phrase “self sufficent” in the face of $115 oil (that is climbing higher because of Tropical Storm Gustav and that topped out at $147 earlier this year) is a strong enough magnet for prospectors like Egdon Resources (LON:EDR), who snapped up six of those new licences.

Now, on to Dubai…

KOP capital is controlled by Dubai Group, but is based in Singapore. We’ll get back to Singapore in a minute.

The company has announced it will buy a 50% stake in Stein Group, which owns a chain of luxury European hotels with facilities in London and Monte Carlo. The deal is worth $250 million. Apparently KOP Capital had been in the market for an international chain for quite some time.

One of the things Stein Group is planning is acquiring small luxury hotels in Asian cities. Places like Beijing (no surprise there), Tokyo, and yes, Singapore.

Sounds like a natural fit…

So it looks like both countries are happy in their “new spaces”. One out of necessity and one out of excess capital.

The UK’s new licenses might help out some small companies like Egdon Resources, but remember. Oil reserves in the UK are likely to be small (between one and 10 million barrels), so upside is limited. On the Dubai side, KOP Capital and Stein Group are not publicly traded, but keep an eye on their expansion and acquisition plans. They might yield some juicy opportunities.

Source: Oil in the UK and Dubai in Europe

More from Joel…

“My short stay here in Dubai has led me to believe that Dubai & Co. is a largely unsustainable enterprise.

“Dubai’s lifestyle makes the average American look like a prudent, energy-conscious, environmentally-friendly health nut! I read the other day that 60% of the average Emirates’ total income is spent on consumer goods – Gucci totes, designer abayas and million-dollar number plates.

“The big difference I can see is that, save for the last few years, the vast majority of America’s wealth accumulated over time and from the productive, honest toil of citizens who forged metal, cracked bullwhips and invented light bulbs. Dubai’s wealth has come on fast and strong…and is not really the product of its own honest toil. Were it not for American, British and French companies – among others – who told them what all that black stuff underfoot was and what the rest of the world was prepared to pay for it, Dubai might still be a pearl diving port of a few thousand itinerant workers.

“If the American economy is drunk on its own home brew of ‘irrational exuberance,’ Dubai is sucking down straight tequila shots and desperately trying to catch up. We see it here everyday as the government squanders its unearned wealth on extravagant welfare programs and ‘National Identify Preservation’ boards and committees dedicated to ‘cultural heritage association’ this and ‘watchdog for immoral behaviour’ that. Then there’s the over-reaching controls on the economy – price fixing, wage manipulation, rent caps…the list goes on.

“I read with interest the ‘Frapp On Ice’ story just the other day – about how Starbucks will close 600 stores over the next year as discretionary consumer spending shrinks. That story was all the more amusing for me as I actually read it on my laptop… in the Starbucks that just opened in the lobby of my building last week. There are now six Starbucks within walking distance from my front door (and I don’t walk far – it was 125 degrees on Monday). We also have numerous Seattle’s Best, Krispy Kreme’s and the rest of the strip mall junk to go along with them. It’s like anytown USA…super-supersized. Which brings me to my next point…

“Jumeirah Beach Residence (or JBR for the cool kids) is a 36-building project that opened a year or so ago. Each building is around 40 stories and there is said to be space for 25,000 people to live here. But where are the people, I ask myself? So few apartments are occupied that I still notice when a conspicuous new light comes on at night in the surrounding buildings…yet, apparently, most are sold. I can’t see the newbies rushing to cut more keys as rent prices have, get this, risen by over 50% since we moved in in December. We took a relatively comfortable two-bedroom with a decent view, but if I walked in off the street today I couldn’t get a studio on the first floor for the same price.

“The story is similar elsewhere in the city too. Projects are developed, pumped through the massive Dubai & Co. media arm and, voila! the joint is 50, 60, or 70% taken! ‘It’s another success story,’ ring the papers ‘Dubai’s world-beating ingenuity triumphs again!’ chorus the king and his merry band of sycophants. But, best as I can make out, the biggest developments – including JBR, touted as the ‘largest single-phase residential project in the world’ – are still ghost towns.

“A friend of mine was out the other day to inspect a house he saw for sale in one of these new developments (Arabian Ranches, in this case). The price was at the top-end of his budget and he was ‘umming and ahhing’ about it until the estate agent casually threw in, ‘now, this property is only available in lots of 10.’ In other words, the development is being sold off in 10-house chunks to middle-men who then flip ‘em and burn onto the next ‘world beating’ development.

“So who’s buying all these vacant houses, streets and islands? Some – and not just the conspiracy theorists either – say Dubai is a massive funnel for dirty Russian money. Others, including myself, reckon speculators buy into the hype…hoping a bigger idiot will buy into it a year later and hand them a handsome return.

“The trouble is, sooner or later you’re going to run out of idiots. Even here in Dububble the supply of them is not without limit.”

Source: Don’t Think About White Elephants

But you need to tread carefully, says Sara Nunnally in Taipan’s Emerging Markets blog. Although there is a bunch of so-called “frontier ETFs” out there to chose from, not all of them make good investments.

If ETFs are your thing, stick to those focused on the Middle East and North Africa, says Sara…

Looks like the world is becoming more focused on frontier markets in Africa and the Middle East. Several new ETFs have popped up, making access to these markets so much easier for US investors.

They are Vectors Gulf States ETF (MES:NYSE), the Market Vectors Africa ETF (AFK:NYSE), the PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries ETF (PMNA:Nasdaq) and Claymore’s Frontier Markets ETF (FRN:NYSE). (Note: The FRN includes investments in a number of other frontier markets, including Latin American and Eastern European countries.)

But just because they give you access to new markets doesn’t necessarily mean they’re great bets…

There are good economic factors out there, and great growth statistics for a number of nations in this region, but keep in mind that these countries are starting from ground zero. We’re talking very little infrastructure and fledgling economies. And a whole lot of social and political unrest in many areas makes for a risky and unstable environment.

In my opinion, I think these ETFs will garner a lot of interest, but investors might do better looking at specific economies or sectors and cherry-picking their opportunities.

That might mean doing a heck of a lot more research, and possibly buying an asset on a foreign exchange, so this type of frontier investing isn’t for everyone. That said, a number of MENA (Middle East/North Africa) and Gulf State countries are listed on major European exchanges, like London, Paris, and on many exchanges in Germany. That should calm some investor fears.

In my opinion, investors should focus more on the following countries for opportunities: Morocco, Kenya, Israel, UAE, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar. Finance, construction, and telecommunications seem to be the top three sectors these ETFs are focused on, aside from energy and commodities, that is.

Egypt is another good option, but there seems to be a bit of concern over food prices and political and religious policy. Nigeria would be an amazing place for investors if it would get its act together, but for now is a no go zone because of all the corruption and terrorist activity.

If anyone is interested in jumping into these ETFs, I think the ones focused on the Middle East and/or North Africa would be a better bet. That’s the PowerShares MENA Frontier Countries ETF (NASDAQ:PMNA) and the Market Vectors Gulf States ETF (NYSE:MES).

Source: Frontier Markets Big on the Radar Screen

Dubai has plenty of qualities that catch an investor’s eye.

• The emirate has the world’s only (self-proclaimed) 7-star hotel.
• Dubai also is home to the biggest financial market in the Middle East, which is itself publicly quoted and trades at 25 times forecast 2008 earnings.
• It has been enjoying one of the greatest construction booms the world has ever seen.
• And Dubai is planning a huge tourist expansion, aiming to boost that sector to more than the 18% of the economy it already accounts for.

So, why aren’t Dubai investments a screaming buy, where we should all be investing our money? After all, plenty of brokers think it’s just that.

From a short-term perspective, Dubai investments haven’t done too badly. The Dubai Financial Market General Index is down about 13% this year, far less than the much-hyped emerging markets of India and China, or even the United States.

But there’s a possible catch.

Whereas 2006 and 2007 were good years for investors in India and superb ones for investors in China, they were lousy for investors in Dubai. The DFM General Index hit its all time high in November 2005, declined pretty steadily over the next two years, and is currently sitting about 40% below that high. Even at that depressed level, the DFM General Index is still trading at about 17 times projected earnings for this year and 3.3 times book value, so it’s not cheap.

That immediately raises questions. While Dubai has little in the way of its own oil reserves, its economy rests fundamentally on its position as entrepôt for the immense oil-exporting region of the Middle East, and for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the oil-rich federation of which Dubai is a member. Oil prices were around $60 per barrel in November 2005 when the DFM General Index was at its peak; oil is now trading in the neighborhood of $130 per barrel, even after last week’s big sell-off – so why is Dubai’s stock market down 40%?

It’s entirely possible that Dubai isn’t as solid as some of its proponents believe.

Two years ago – before the real estate crash – it might have seemed impressive that Dubai, with 0.02% of the world’s population, was employing more than 10% of the world’s tower construction cranes; today we know better. Dubai’s rate of inflation is around 20%, and it’s on the upswing, while home mortgage interest rates sit below 7%. That means that the cost of making a home mortgage – in real terms – is negative 13%. The UAE government is considering allowing its currency, the dirham, to float upward against the dollar, but hasn’t done so yet.

Dubai received more than 7 million tourists last year, with 1 million of those coming in from Great Britain (who presumably prefer the climate) – but the British government currently rates Dubai’s terrorism threat at its highest level. It’s not hard to imagine what a terrorist attack could do to Dubai’s impressive tourist rates.

Dubai is also planning to spend $82 billion on aerospace projects to include the world’s largest airport – but with a population of only 1.5 million, it will need a lot of foreign traffic to fill up such a behemoth.

The potential for that to come to pass is there, given the growing levels of investment that China and others are making in the Middle East, and because the Dubai project isn’t solely focused on tourism: The airport and aerospace hub is viewed as an economic-development project. But success is far from guaranteed, and an economic downturn could make the objectives tough – if not impossible – to achieve. Indeed, should the ongoing global financial crisis eviscerate worldwide growth, Dubai’s development strategy could be exposed as a bubble, not a boom.

To be sure, other small nations have engineered economic miracles. Consider, for example, the economic success of Singapore, which has a smaller land area but three times the population.

Like Dubai, Singapore has no core advantage, such as a wealth of natural resources. Nor does it have a bevy of natural tourist hot spots. And much like Dubai, Singapore’s only advantage is one of geographic position. However, Singapore has an income per capita at purchasing power parity of $49,700 (eighth highest in the world) compared to the UAE’s $37,300.

Singapore’s growth has been built on two factors:

• The extremely high education level of its population (relative to income at first, in the 1960s, but in absolute terms now).
• And an obsessive focus on moving up the value chain in everything it does.

Dubai has neither advantage; it supplements its small local population with a huge underclass of immigrants (more than 80% of the population in the UAE as a whole), rather than upgrading the capabilities of its own people, and it relies on building artificial tourism in an area where (because of the unpleasant climate and relative lack of natural or historic attractions) it’s possible that no natural flow of tourists would have otherwise occurred.

An economy built on construction, tourism, and a boundless flow of cash, without any special knowledge base, is one that could end up being derailed in the long run. And that long run could be more painful if it turns out that Dubai has been feeding a major construction bubble through deeply negative interest rates.

William says that investment risks in this massive project are limited by the government’s financial backing. Though most local companies are not publicly traded (or not in the US, at least), he says there are several ways for US investors to ride the boom…

Three Ways to Profit From the Biggest Airport on Earth

By William Patalon III

Crude oil and jet-fuel prices are in the stratosphere, many of the world’s top airlines have ordered severe cutbacks, and air passenger traffic is falling. so why is Dubai funneling 82 billion of its petrodollars into an aerospace project that includes plans for the world’s largest airport?

The answer is simple. Dubai isn’t concerned about the near-term turbulence that has sent global investors diving for cover and induced airline-industry executives to hanger portions of their jetliner fleets.

The leaders of that Middle Eastern country have taken a long and studious look at the powerful global trends that are destined to play out over the next 20, 30 or even 40 years, and have crafted their plans accordingly.

In a broad sense, that focus on the long term is a lesson U.S. investors would be very smart to follow.

So, let’s take a close look at how well Dubai’s financerati have thought this through. We’ll look at some moves you can make to profit alongside Dubai. And I’ll even let you in on a surprise conclusion about this project that we’ve reached here at Money Morning – that I can virtually guarantee you’ve yet to hear anywhere else. Perhaps you’ll be the enviable “person in the corner surrounded by a crowd” at the next dinner party you attend.

The Lowdown on a High-Flying Nation

Dubai is situated on the Southwest Coast of the Persian Gulf and is one of six jurisdictions that make up the United Arab Emirates, a member of the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (OPEC).

Although Dubai built its economy on a foundation of petro-gusher dollars, “black gold” has become an increasingly smaller component of its market muscle. Right now, in fact, oil and natural gas account for only about 6% of Dubai’s estimated $40 billion economy, and some experts predict that its crude-oil reserves will be exhausted in about 20 years.

As ominous as that sounds, Dubai leaders apparently don’t see that as a catastrophe in the making. Today, the biggest pieces of this emirate’s economic might are based on foreign trade (16%), seaport or airport-located duty-free trade zones known as entrepot (15%), and financial services (11%), although real-estate development, construction and tourism are closing the gap quickly.

“Dubai had less oil than [neighbor] Abu Dhabi [and needs] to create jobs for the population,” Richard Aboulafia, an industry consultant with the aerospace-management company, The Teal Group, told MarketWatch.com. “This is them saying: ‘Let’s convert our oil money into something tangible’.”

Said Keith Fitz-Gerald, investment director for Money Morning: “What we’re seeing here is the emergence of an entirely new economy where the world least expected it. This is absolutely progressing much faster than anyone ever expected. And, to borrow an expression from an old movie, ‘There may be a new sheriff in town’,” as global sovereign wealth funds potentially supplant Wall Street as the primary financing vehicle for the world markets.

Consulting giant McKinsey & Co. estimates that Persian Gulf economies will have to create more than 4 million jobs for its own citizens in the next 10 years. The aerospace sector could account for as many as 350,000 new positions by 2015, McKinsey says.

In very recent years, the country has gained a reputation for doing things in a big way, sometimes even past the point of excess. Dubai is already home to the world’s largest mall, biggest indoor ski resort and tallest building – as well as the world’s only “seven-star” hotel, the boat-sail shaped Burj Al Arab, a luxury hotel built on an artificially created offshore island, and a building whose reach of 1,053 feet makes it the tallest structure being used as a hotel anywhere on earth.

And don’t forget “The World” itself, a much-ballyhooed manmade archipelago of 300 islands (situated in the shape of a world map). Most of the individual patches of land were to fetch $15 million to $50 million – although one of the islands was reportedly priced at $250 million.

Currently, an estimated $300 billion in construction-and-development projects are under way in Dubai.

Dubai Takes to the Skies

Dubai’s aviation vision reaches back several decades. But it’s only really reached a critical mass in the past couple of years. Dubai-based Emirates Airlines is currently the world’s fastest-growing carrier. And that fast-climbing rate isn’t because Emirates is growing from a small base.

Indeed, with 180 jetliners, worth an estimated $58 billion, on order, Emirates has become such an industry heavyweight – especially when other top carriers are cutting their fleets – that U.S.-based Boeing Co. (BA) and pan-European aerospace giant Airbus SAS have actually catered elements of multi-billion-dollar airliner-development programs to the needs and demands voiced by Emirates execs.

“The Middle East is taking over the aerospace industry and Dubai is at the heart of it,” Doug McVitie, an aerospace consultant with Arran Aerospace, told MarketWatch.com recently.

And that’s not just because of the major petro-bucks Emirates has at hand. It’s also because of how well the many pieces of Dubai’s growth strategy fit together.

Right now, globalization is the single most important business-and-economic trend unfolding in the world today. And thanks to that globalization – as well as advances in aerospace technology – the sheikdom whose proximity to India and willingness to slash trade taxes made it one of the Gulf region’s key trading outposts back in the 19th Century, once again finds itself at an opportune geographic nexus: From Dubai, it’s now possible to fly nonstop to the West Coast of the United States, or to the Far East – making it the logical stopping-off point for travelers flying between those two points.

“They have a geographic advantage that no one else has,” Diogenis Papiomytis, a commercial-aviation consultant with Frost & Sullivan, told MarketWatch.com. “Within 8,000 miles, they can reach something like 80% of the world.”

Emirates Airlines is reaping the benefits – and in a huge way. Last year, its profits soared 54%, reaching $1.45 billion. Sales jumped 32% as the airline carried more than 21 million passengers – an increase of 21% from the year before.

Right now, the Dubai carrier is watching its business grow at an annual clip of 15-18%. At that pace, and with the help of the passenger and cargo growth other carriers are experiencing in Dubai, Emirates Chief Executive Officer Maurice Flanagan says Dubai International will eventually overtake some of the world’s top airport hubs.

Overall, the existing Dubai International Airport had 34 million passengers – just about half that of the Global Top 3 of Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson (85 million), Chicago’s O’Hare International (77 million) and London’s Heathrow International (67 million).

That’s why Dubai has decided to shoot for the moon and build the world’s biggest airport. A $33 billion development itself, the new Al Maktoum International Airport at Jebel Ali will have six parallel runways and will be able to handle 120 million passengers a year when it’s finished in 2015.

Holding Out For New Opportunities

But the airport itself is only a part of this $82 billion initiative. Dubai wants to become a global aerospace leader. And it’s deploying the Middle East’s favorite business weapon to do so – the holding company.

Middle Eastern players such as Dubai, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and others use holding companies – financed by government-controlled sovereign wealth funds – as the investment-and-acquisition vehicles to achieve their economic objectives. Dubai, through its Dubai World holding company has been especially adept at using the holding-company strategy as an economic-development vehicle. And the emirate has created a new company, this one called Dubai Aerospace Enterprise, or DAE, which is to focus on the air-transportation sector.

DAE has already shifted into high gear, first recruiting former Honeywell Aerospace CEO Robert Johnson as its top executive and then establishing a number of operating subsidiaries – such as DAE University for training some of the 24,000 pilots the Gulf region will need in the next decade, and DAE Capital, which is buying and leasing aircraft to carriers throughout the world.

Dubai’s grand vision calls for the new airport to become an aerospace metroplex: It will be bigger than all of Hong Kong, and will consist of six different “zones,” each with a different focus. Operations will include service and storage facilities for aircraft and cargo, production and assembly operations for aircraft components, and venues in engineering, training, and airport operations.

Though some analysts expressed concern about the risks and the poor timing, you can bet that this venture won’t fail. It’s not a profit-and-loss situation, given that its “investors” include the government-run Dubai International Capital sovereign fund, Dubai construction heavyweight EMAAR Properties PJSC, and the Dubai International Financial Centre, a 110-acre free-trade zone and international financial exchange.

Said the Teal Group’s Aboulafia: A lack of profitability “doesn’t matter. They are not a profit-and-loss-operation. They will scream until they’re blue in the face that they are not subsidized, but all the working capital comes from the government.”

Here’s the surprising fact: Long-term, this project may turn out to be more than an airport. There’s actually been some conjecture that Dubai could well have plans to devote part of this project to space transportation, either as a commercial-satellite launch facility, or as a recovery area for returning reusable space vehicles – making this one of the first commercial spaceports on earth.

Whatever the ultimate plans are, it’s very clear that Dubai is determined to succeed. But many of the Dubai-based companies are private, and not publicly traded, and those that are public have their shares listed on Middle East bourses, and don’t have U.S.-listed American Depository Receipts (ADRs). And though we’d all love to ride along as investors in one of the big sovereign funds that are spreading billions around the planet, that’s not likely either.

But there are two very clear profit plays here, and one – pardon the pun – flyer.

Fly in Formation on an $82 Billion Project

Boeing (BA) is the most-obvious play here, given that it’s one of only two remaining successful jumbo-jet makers on earth (as I reported here a month ago, China just announced plans for a jumbo-jet company of its own, but that’s at least a decade away).

Boeing will reap billions in airliner orders from the Middle East (England’s Farnborough International Airshow – when billions of dollars worth of airliners are often ordered by carriers and leasing firms during flush times – is scheduled for mid-July) over the next several decades. And that market is dwarfed by the massive demand that’s expected to emanate from Asia: China alone is projected to require $340 billion worth of commercial airliners over the next 20 years.

The company’s defense business is sound, and it just won a favorable ruling from the U.S. General Accountability Office on a protest it lodged over the loss of a U.S. Air Force aerial tanker deal worth an initial $35 billion – and with a potential ultimate value of $100 billion.

At yesterday’s close of $68.21, Boeing’s shares are down 37% from their 52-week high of $107.83. The shares are trading at about 12 times current earnings and 17.5 times projected profits, and carry a dividend yield of nearly 2.4%. What’s more, Boeing has been buying back its own shares, which is often a good sign for shareholders.

Emirates CEO Flanagan – and others involved with the Dubai aerospace project – say the dour outlook for airlines is only temporary and will eventually work itself out. When that happens, we believe Boeing’s shares will definitely move higher – if not before.

MGM Mirage (MGM) is the other key play here. We like the shares of this Las Vegas-based casino-resort operator a lot for several reasons. First, the company is actually a high-profit play on China. And for followers of major global trends, that’s a huge plus.

But MGM also has a very strong tie-in with Dubai, because it already has in place a financing deal from the state-run Dubai World. Last summer, when MGM shares were trading in the $80 range, Dubai World said it would invest $5 billion in MGM.

The goal: Help MGM execute its China strategy, which the Vegas gaming firm has been pursuing since the middle 1990s.

And China is far from MGM’s only target market overseas. It’s working with the Mubadala Development Co. in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi on some similar luxury-level [non-gaming] projects. Mubadala is an investment arm of the Abu Dhabi government.

MGM is on the verge of becoming a top global brand in the hospitality sector, and Dubai wants a piece of the action. You can bet that as Dubai develops its airport property, and throttles up its global tourism strategy, MGM will be a key participant, given that Dubai already owns part of the company.

“Dubai is getting in on the ground floor of some very powerful trends,” Money Morning’s Fitz-Gerald said.

U.S. brokerage houses are downgrading the shares because of a big drop-off in traffic in Vegas. But, to borrow a phrase, that’s not where the action is – or, at least, isn’t where the future action is going to be.

At yesterday’s close of $36.60, MGM’s shares are down 64% from their 12-month high.

If you want one highly speculative play — based almost solely on the hope for takeover — make a study of out-of-favor aircraft leaser Genesis Lease Ltd. (ADR: GLS). The Ireland-based firm has seen its shares drop about 64% from its 12-month high as the credit crisis and the airline-industry downturn savaged the sector. But some experts wonder if DAE Capital might not take this opportunity to grow a bit faster by picking up assets at a discount.

“The level of ambition and the money and willingness to support [the airport project] is staggering,” David Stewart, a consultant with AeroStrategy, told journalists.

Source: Three Ways to Profit From the Biggest Airport on Earth