Did Obama Help Turn Iran Into A Capitalist Economy?

If they do it right, Iran might become the United Arab Emirates on steroids. New, futuristic towers in cities friendly to frolicking Westerners who kiss in public and wear bikinis to the beach.

Last month, President Barack Obama managed to get an historic deal signed with Iran regarding its nuclear energy program. And investors think this will lead to the gradual opening of Iran’s securities market, much like has happened over the last several decades in the U.A.E. Both U.A.E. and tiny Qatar were once nomadic desert nations with nothing but oil. Sure, if the only thing you’re going to get handed to you in life is an oil field it’s nothing to cry about. But since then, both of those countries have become global travel destinations, world trade hubs and a paradise of modern architectural design. Moreover, both were included in the MSCI MSCI +% Emerging Markets Index in 2014. They’ve grown up. They’re growing up. They’re becoming fully capitalist, slowly but surely, and have markets investors can invest in.

Iran is not currently in any investing indices. But since Obama lifted sanctions on Iran in July, investors think that will change. Iran is bound to become a new frontier market, at least on par with Central Asian giant Kazakhstan, whose state-run gas firm Kazmunaigas Exploration is a 1.7% weighting in the MSCI Frontier Markets Index. Almost by mistake, Obama opened Iran’s economy up to the world and turned on a number of risk loving money management firms in London and New York.

An image from the graphic novel Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. The book put Iran on the map as more than just a political nerve center in the Middle East, but as a nation of people hungry for change now for more than two generations. Change is coming to Iran. Investors are betting that it lasts.

The impact will certainly be felt in Iran’s $100 billion stock market.

While Iran is still a decade away from being as open as the U.A.E., expectations are high in at least one London-based firm that Tehran will soon start moves to open its markets to foreign investors. Stay tuned, investors, looking for the next big thing.

“Pricing is attractive at just 5.7 times forward earnings, so the market compares favorably with many frontier and other emerging markets,” says Jan Dehn, head of research at the $70 billion emerging market wealth management firm Ashmore in London.