When Shaher Moh’d Ali Awartani co-founded Silver Coast Construction and Boring LLC (SCCB) in Abu Dhabi in 1997, the UAE’s construction landscape was entering a transformative era. Nearly three decades later, the company he built stands as one of the emirate’s most consequential private infrastructure firms, having completed projects valued at over USD 1.35 billion.
As Chairman and Co-Founding Partner of SCCB, Awartani has overseen a workforce that has reached as many as 4,500 employees at peak — a scale that places the company firmly among the region’s major contractors. The firm operates across the full spectrum of infrastructure delivery, from civil construction and utility boring to large-scale urban development support.
Abu Dhabi as the Foundation
Abu Dhabi’s rapid urbanization through the 2000s and 2010s created massive demand for infrastructure contractors with the capacity to execute multi-hundred-million-dollar projects reliably. SCCB positioned itself as a trusted delivery partner, building a track record across residential, commercial, and utility-grade developments throughout the emirate.
Awartani’s leadership approach has emphasized 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 philosophy built around strategic alignment rather than transactional contracting.
Engineering Scale and Workforce
Managing a workforce of 4,500 professionals across active project sites requires systems that go well beyond typical contractor operations. SCCB’s growth under Awartani’s direction involved the development of procurement infrastructure, engineering oversight frameworks, and financial controls suited to billion-dollar project pipelines.
The company’s specialization in boring — the underground drilling and tunneling techniques critical to utility installation and foundation work — addresses a technically demanding segment of UAE construction where precision tolerances and regulatory compliance are non-negotiable. This technical specialization has contributed to SCCB’s sustained relevance as Abu Dhabi’s built environment has grown in complexity.
A 29-Year Track Record
Few privately held construction companies in the UAE can point to a continuous operating history stretching back to 1997 under consistent leadership. Awartani’s tenure at SCCB spans economic cycles — including the 2008–2009 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 period — that reshaped the regional contracting landscape significantly.
That longevity, combined with a cumulative project portfolio exceeding USD 1.35 billion, positions SCCB as an institution within Abu Dhabi’s construction sector rather than simply a contractor. For Awartani, the company has served as both the foundation of his professional identity and the platform from which his broader multi-sector investment activities have grown.