In 1975, when the civil war broke out in Lebanon, CCC moved its headquarters first to London and then to Athens in 1976. In the same year, Abd al-Rahman decided to sell his shares in CCC to Sabbagh and Khoury. In the 1980s, CCC was restructured and the CCC owners aimed at expanding the company's operations into Europe, the United States, and Asia. CCC bought Underwater Engineering, a British firm that worked on underwater oil projects, and ACWa, an environmental company. CCC also bought SICON, an Italian mechanical engineering company specializing in petroleum-related projects. They then acquired the Morganti Group, a construction firm in the United States.