Shaher Awartani: How SCCB Became a USD 1.35 Billion Infrastructure Firm in Abu Dhabi

Shaher Moh’d Ali Awartani co-founded Silver Coast Construction and Boring LLC (SCCB) in Abu Dhabi in 1997, at a point when the UAE’s construction sector was entering a period of significant change. Nearly three decades on, the company has completed projects valued at over USD 1.35 billion and stands as one of the emirate’s most significant privately held infrastructure firms.

As Chairman and Co-Founding Partner, Awartani has led a business that at its peak employed 4,500 people. SCCB works across the full range of infrastructure delivery, covering civil construction, utility boring, and support for large-scale urban development.

Abu Dhabi as the Base

The rapid urban growth Abu Dhabi experienced through the 2000s and 2010s created strong demand for infrastructure contractors capable of delivering projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars. SCCB built its reputation as a dependable delivery partner across residential, commercial, and utility-grade developments throughout the emirate.

Awartani has led the business with a focus on structured governance and long-term institutional relationships. His connections to leading UAE sovereign and institutional investors — including partnerships with figures such as H.E. Yousif Al Otaiba and Mubadala Investment Company — reflect a business approach built on strategic alignment rather than one-off contracting.

Engineering and Workforce at Scale

Running a workforce of 4,500 professionals across active construction sites requires systems well beyond those of a typical contractor. SCCB’s growth under Awartani involved building procurement infrastructure, engineering oversight frameworks, and financial controls suited to a project pipeline operating at the billion-dollar level.

The company’s specialisation in boring — the underground drilling and tunnelling techniques used in utility installation and foundation work — places it in a technically demanding part of the UAE construction market. Precision tolerances and regulatory compliance are standard requirements in this area of work. That technical focus has helped SCCB remain relevant as Abu Dhabi’s built environment has grown more complex.

Twenty-Nine Years of Continuous Operation

Few privately held construction companies in the UAE have operated continuously since 1997 under the same leadership. Awartani has steered SCCB through the 2008 to 2009 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 period, both of which reshaped the regional contracting market in significant ways.

That operating history, combined with a project portfolio exceeding USD 1.35 billion, places SCCB in a different category from a standard contractor. For Awartani, the company has been both the foundation of his professional career and the platform from which his wider multi-sector investment activities have developed.