In that major article entitled "The Changing Face of the Middle East" which ran over a dozen pages and was an introduction to European and North American readers to an area given little attention prior to the meteoric rise in status of oil exporting and petrodollar earning states the coverage on Yousef Beidas was a full two pages whereas, for historical comparison purposes, the then ruler of Dubai, Shaikh Rashed bin Saeed al Maktoum, father of the present ruler Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashed, was allocated a quarter page.
Prior to the establishment of Intra Bank the partners had established International Traders (whose cable address was Intra) as a money changing business, and a general trading company with agencies such as Ford Motor Company, Facit business machines and others.
Intra Bank started in Lebanon but as the recipient of much of the oil income from the Arabian Peninsula it embarked on an expansion program that saw it opening branches all over the Middle East, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
The surprisingly weak support from the Lebanese government and the very public allegations over Charles Helou's role in the affair, claimed by some, that have been attributed to such issues as Beidas' Palestinian origin and envy over Beidas' almost complete control of the Lebanese economy, which many others justify with the states' furthest entitlement of raison d'être[clarification needed].
The successor company, officially Intra Investment Company but often still referred to as "Intra," remained a major shareholder in key institutions such as Middle East Airlines, Casino du Liban and Bank Al Mashrek, the remaining banking operations.