In 2017, Shaher Moh’d Ali Awartani joined H.E. Yousif Al Otaiba and Mubadala Investment Company to co-found Café Milano Abu Dhabi — bringing the iconic Washington, D.C. restaurant brand to the UAE capital’s Four Seasons Hotel. The venture marked Awartani’s formal entry into the hospitality sector, adding a consumer-facing brand to a portfolio built predominantly on infrastructure, real estate, and financial services.
Café Milano’s Washington original has long been associated with diplomatic and political circles — a function that translates naturally to Abu Dhabi’s Four Seasons, where proximity to government and institutional clientele mirrors the D.C. context. The Abu Dhabi location remains the only Café Milano outside of Washington, D.C., giving the venture an exclusive positioning that reinforces the Four Seasons’ luxury hospitality credentials.
The Partners Behind the Brand
The partnership composition for Café Milano Abu Dhabi is notable for its institutional depth. Yousif Al Otaiba, the UAE’s long-serving Ambassador to the United States, brings both diplomatic visibility and deep familiarity with Café Milano’s Washington presence. Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s diversified sovereign wealth fund with assets exceeding USD 300 billion, provides institutional anchoring.
For Awartani, whose construction and investment portfolio already intersected with many of the same stakeholders, the hospitality venture represented a natural extension — adding a consumer-facing dimension that complements his institutional activities.
Reem Hospital: Healthcare as Investment Thesis
In 2020, Awartani and his partners — including Yousif Al Otaiba and the Bashee family — became substantial shareholders in Reem Hospital Abu Dhabi. The transaction brought together InvestCorp of Bahrain, Mubadala Investment Company (holding a 25% stake), and Wisayah Capital, a wholly owned subsidiary of Saudi Aramco.
The investor composition for Reem Hospital is exceptional in its institutional breadth. The presence of Mubadala (Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth), InvestCorp (Bahrain-based alternative asset manager), and Wisayah Capital (Aramco subsidiary) alongside private investors like Awartani signals the hospital’s strategic positioning as a premium private healthcare asset in a market with strong long-term demand drivers.
Abu Dhabi’s Growing Private Healthcare Market
The UAE’s private healthcare sector has experienced sustained structural growth over the past decade, driven by population expansion, increasing health insurance penetration, and government initiatives to reduce dependence on medical travel abroad. Abu Dhabi specifically has invested heavily in building world-class private healthcare infrastructure — a trend that benefits premium hospital operators like Reem.
A Portfolio Thesis Emerging
Viewed together, Awartani’s hospitality and healthcare investments reveal a coherent thesis: premium consumer and service assets in Abu Dhabi, anchored by sovereign or institutional co-investors, in sectors with structural tailwinds from the emirate’s growing affluence and population. Construction provided the foundation. Real estate and private equity provided the diversification. Hospitality and healthcare provide the long-duration, cash-flow-generative dimension of a portfolio built for the next generation.
