Shaher Moh’d Ali Awartani co-founded Silver Coast Construction and Boring LLC (SCCB) in Abu Dhabi in 1997, as the UAE’s construction sector was beginning a period of considerable expansion. The company has since delivered projects with a combined value of more than USD 1.35 billion, making it one of the most established privately held infrastructure firms in the emirate.
As Chairman and Co-Founding Partner, Awartani has overseen a business that has employed up to 4,500 people at peak. SCCB operates across civil construction, utility boring, and support services for large urban development projects.
Rooted in Abu Dhabi
The scale of urban development in Abu Dhabi during the 2000s and 2010s created sustained demand for infrastructure contractors able to take on projects running into hundreds of millions of dollars. SCCB built a track record as a consistent delivery partner across residential, commercial, and utility-grade work throughout the emirate.
Awartani has run the business with an emphasis on governance structures and long-term relationships with institutional clients. His connections to major UAE sovereign and institutional investors — including partnerships with figures such as H.E. Yousif Al Otaiba and Mubadala Investment Company — reflect a business model built around sustained strategic relationships rather than project-by-project contracting.
Running a Large Workforce
Coordinating 4,500 workers across active project sites requires operational infrastructure that goes well beyond what most contractors need. Under Awartani’s direction, SCCB developed procurement systems, engineering oversight processes, and financial controls designed to handle a pipeline of projects at the billion-dollar scale.
The company’s work in boring — underground drilling and tunnelling central to utility installation and foundation construction — covers a specialist and tightly regulated area of the UAE construction market. Precision and compliance are not optional in this field. That specialisation has helped SCCB maintain a strong position as Abu Dhabi’s infrastructure requirements have grown more demanding.
Close to Thirty Years in Operation
Privately held construction companies in the UAE with a continuous operating history going back to 1997 under the same leadership are rare. Awartani has led SCCB through the global financial crisis of 2008 to 2009 and the COVID-19 period, both of which had a significant effect on how the regional contracting market operates.
That continuity, alongside a project portfolio exceeding USD 1.35 billion, gives SCCB a standing in Abu Dhabi’s construction sector that goes beyond that of a standard contractor. For Awartani, the company represents the foundation of his professional life and the base from which his investment activity across multiple sectors has grown over time.
