The Middle East: Cool CAT

Though better known for its shrewd bankers and sharp traders, tiny Lebanon has the nearest thing to a major industrialist in the Arab world. He is Emile Bustani, 54, who, as chairman of Beirut's Contracting & Trading Co. (CAT), bosses the biggest of all Arab-owned industrial enterprises.

CAT is primarily a construction company. Much of the Mideast's oil flows through CAT-laid pipelines. From Kuwait to Algeria, CAT crews today are literally rebuilding the Arab world, dotting it with new schools and hotels, airfields and roads.

CAT also has a paw in Mideast Airlines, in Beirut's St. Georges and Phoenicia hotels, and in...

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