Beirut’s “luxury” chocolate chain Patchi, recently named by brand consultancy Wolff Olins as one of the world’s five most successful new brands from emerging markets, recently hired financial advisers for a primary listing in Dubai and a secondary listing in London that will see up to 49% of the company floated. The firm generated $165m in sales last year, and ultimately plans to expand into a line of cafés that would make it “like ­Starbucks, but at a higher level,” per its executive general manager, Mazin Obeidi. Its first cafe will likely open in Lebanon sometime next year, he added.  More importantly for investors, Patchi’s IPO would be the first public offering on the Dubai Financial Market in the past 14 months, despite the emirate’s open-arms towards would-be

Per hospitality research firm STR Global and Deloitte & Touche Middle East, Middle East hotels in 22 cities in the region during the first half of 2009 witnessed an average 10.9% decrease in occupancies and a 17.2% drop in revenue per available room (RevPAR), an industry benchmark.  Among the worst RevPAR performers were Dubai (down 35%) and Muscat (16.6%), while other cities outperformed tremendously, including Abu Dhabi (3.2% increase), Jeddah (11.5%) and Beirut (125.2%).

Openwave Systems Inc., a leading developer of mobile and broadband software innovations, recently announced that the company will showcase its latest mobile Internet and messaging software applications and infrastructure at Arabcom Summit 2009 in Beirut, Lebanon on May 28 - 29, 2009. Openwave’s product marketing strategist, Michael Rodgers, will deliver a presentation on the topic “Mobile Data 2.0: Next Gen Services for Network Operators in Emerging Markets” at the summit.

As the Internet merges with the communications industry, Openwave software enables service providers to converge services to effectively increase the value of their networks by accelerating time to market and reducing the cost associated with new service deployment. Live product demonstrations will be available at the Openwave exhibit booth #23, and include mobile analytics, content adaptation, mobile and broadband advertising, and a suite of messaging solutions.

Ken Denman, Chief Operating Officer of Openwave, stated, “Openwave is committed to serving emerging markets

How come?  The Economist explains:

The ironic truth is that the country’s double curse, of chaotic internal politics and being located in a nasty neighbourhood, are proving helpful for a change. For one thing, they have made Lebanese bankers unusually wary and resourceful. Four years ago, for instance, the Banque du Liban’s (central bank) stern and far-sighted head, Riad Salameh, banned any dealing in such tricky foreign instruments as mortgage-linked securities. And while banks, property developers and service vendors raked in business as private cash spilled out of the oil-enriched Gulf, competition between influence-seeking powers brought a windfall in aid for reconstruction following the ruinous 2006 war with Israel. Iran alone has injected perhaps $1 billion to rebuild the heavily bomb-damaged parts of Beirut run by its protégé militia, Hizbullah.

Lebanon’s economy gets as much as $6 billion in remittances a year from about 10 million Lebanese living abroad,