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Orascom Construction PLC, the engineering giant controlled by Egypt’s billionaire Sawiris family, began trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange on Tuesday, moving its primary listing from Nasdaq Dubai to tap deeper liquidity and align itself with the Gulf’s largest capital pools.
Shareholders last month approved the shift and the transfer of Orascom’s incorporation from the Dubai International Financial Center to the Abu Dhabi Global Market. Its secondary listing on the Egyptian Exchange remains unchanged, leaving Orascom dual-listed on ADX and EGX.
The Sawiris clan—one of the Middle East’s wealthiest families with sprawling interests in construction, telecommunications, and finance—has long used Orascom as a cornerstone of its global investments. The move places the company squarely in Abu Dhabi’s orbit at a time when the emirate is courting big-ticket listings to cement its status as a financial hub.
“We are pleased to begin trading on ADX today,” Chief Executive Officer Osama Bishai said in a statement. “We are already an active player across construction and infrastructure investments in Abu Dhabi, and we look forward to bringing our track record of delivering major projects across our global markets to both new and existing shareholders. This marks the first step in our internal restructuring to expand construction activities and strengthen infrastructure investments.”
Abu Dhabi’s bourse has seen a surge in activity, with listed companies posting a 15.6% year-on-year profit increase to 88 billion dirhams in the first half of 2025. Abdulla Salem Alnuaimi, CEO of ADX, hailed the listing as a “qualitative addition that enhances market depth and opens new horizons for investors to participate in the next phase of the region’s development.”
The shift underscores how Abu Dhabi is competing with Dubai and Riyadh for marquee listings amid a regional drive to diversify economies and attract foreign capital. By choosing ADX, the Sawiris family is betting on Abu Dhabi’s growing investor base and infrastructure ambitions, which dovetail with Orascom’s core business of delivering power plants, transport systems, and industrial projects.
The family’s decision also reflects a wider trend of regional conglomerates migrating to exchanges with higher liquidity and stronger institutional interest. For Orascom, whose roots stretch back more than seven decades, the listing marks another chapter in a story that has seen the Sawirises turn a family construction firm into a multinational force—and now, a flagship of Abu Dhabi’s push to rival global financial centers.
