The Business Year: Portugal 2022

THE BUSINESS YEAR: PORTUGAL 2022

We conducted more than 130 face-toface interviews with leading investors, business leaders, and government representatives from all the key sectors driving Portugal’s economic growth for this publication. In partnership with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, we have created a comprehensive analysis of the trends defining the Iberian nation, focusing on its resilience and the efforts of the government to lead the country out of the pandemic.

In November 2021, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa approved the dissolution of parliament and called for a general election to be held on January 30, 2022. Prime Minister Antonio Costa emerged victorious and was re-elected after his center-left Socialist Party secured a landslide.

The common denominator of all the interviews we conducted for this publication was the theme of innovation and digitalization.

Following an unprecedented crisis due to the pandemic, Portugal’s recovery and resilience plan responded to the urgent need of fostering a strong re-booting and ensuring the country is “future ready.” All the initiatives and investments promoted by our interviewees are targeted to make Portugal one of the most sustainable and resilient nations within the EU, and within the finance sector something of a European fin-

tech hub. We have noticed an increasing trend of international fintechs moving to Portugal, with a growing number of international players also moving their HQs to Lisbon to start their expansions to Europe.

This trend is generating a positive domino effect in the local real estate market. Within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, the demand for office space is increasing despite the rise of WFH. In this edition, we also do a deep dive into the Portuguese Pharmaceutical Cluster, the center of an industry that is becoming a strategic area for both local and international investment, with more businesses relocating their regional HQs. It is evident to us that, over the medium term, the Portuguese Pharmaceutical Cluster has the potential to become a powerful economic force within the local economy.

We closed our market research on another positive note, analyzing the performance of the tourism sector. As per official statistics, in 2022 employment in the sector is rising and could also exceed 2019 levels in 2023. Portugal is set to be the fourth-most-popular European destination amongst travelers in summer 2022. In the short term, travel and tourism will drive economic recovery and visitor numbers and receipts could even surpass pre-pandemic levels. ✖

CEO

Ayşe Hazır

COO Carlos Martinez

Country Manager Cristina Villegas

Country Editor Edoardo Caccin

Assistant Country Manager Lucia Sanzhez Pardo

Project Assistant Pedro Filipe Coelho Luis

Editorial Terry Whitlam, Aidan McMahon

Contributors

Pronto Publishing Services, Babak Babali, Mark Szawlowski, Adrian Espallargas

ISBN 978-1-912498-96-3

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48 INDUSTRY

49

50

30 GREEN ECONOMY & ENERGY

31

32

51 Distributors • B2B

52

54 Aerospace • B2B

56 TELECOMS & IT

57

70

72 TRANSPORT

73 Ports of plenty • Chapter summary

74 Raul Magalhães, President, APLOG

• Interview

76 Sandra Ayres, CEO, Euroatla and Euronave, Cosco Shipping Lines agency

• Interview

77 Filipe Carvalho, Co-founder & General Manager, Wide Scope

• Interview

78 Luís Castro Paupério, Head of Marketing, Moldtrans Portugal

• Interview

79 A present without friction

• Communiqué: Moldtrans

80 Antonio Alberto Sotto Mayor Vaz, Director, AASMVAZ • Interview

82 Sail away • Focus: Naval and maritime industry

84 José Castel-Branco, Member of the Board of Directors, Administration of the Port of Lisbon (APL) • Interview

85 Strong connection

• Communiqué: Qualiseg

86 Bruno Dias, CEO, Grupo Qualiseg

• Interview

87 Mark Dawson, CEO, Garland Group

• Interview

88

CONSTRUCTION & REAL ESTATE

89 The office returns • Chapter summary

91 Rita Moura, President, Plataforma Tecnológica Portuguesa da Construção (PTPC)

• Interview

92 Aniceto Viegas, CEO, Avenue

• Interview

94 Helder Pereira Coelho, CEO, TOTE SER

• Interview

95 Just like new • Focus: The urban rehabilitation of Lisbon

96 Local real estate players • Forum

97 Sérgio Ferreira, Founder & CEO, Coporgest & CEO, Lisbon Best Apartments

• Interview

97 Filipe Ferreira,

91

108 HEALTH

117 On a path of innovation

• Communiqué: JANNSEN

118 Carla Benedito, General Manager, Takeda Farmacéuticos Portugal • Interview

119 Local pharma • B2B

120 Filipa Mota e Costa, Managing Director, Janssen Portugal

• Interview

121 Biopharma • Forum

122 International biopharma

• Forum

124 Voices from the sector

125 Fertility clinics B2B

126 EDUCATION

127 Keep learning • Chapter summary

128 Executive education • Forum

129 Carlos Oliveira Cruz, Vice President, Civil Engineering Research and Innovation for Sustainability (CERIS) • Interview

130 TOURISM

131 Drink it in • Chapter summary

132 Luís Araújo, President, Portuguese National Tourism Authority • Interview

134 Let’s go again • Focus: Reactive tourism

135 Miguel Mendia Montez, Champalimaud General Manager, The Oitavos • Interview

136 Thierry Henrot, General Manager, Sheraton Lisboa Hotel & Spa • Interview

Read more at thebusinessyear.com/portugal thebusinessyear thebusinessyear thebusinessyear TBYupdates thebusinessyear

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Portuguese economy is expected to grow 5.8% in 2022, according to new projections released on May 16 by the European Commission. If these forecasts are confirmed, Portugal will outpace much of the eurozone. Elsewhere, inflation is expected to come in at 4.4%, below the European average of 6.1%, but well above the 2.3% previously estimated.

The outbreak of COVID-19 dealt a severe blow to the Portuguese economy as a whole. After an 8.4% drop in 2020, GDP rebound by 4.8% in 2021, helped by the fact that close to 90% of the population is now fully vaccinated, the highest rate in the OECD.

Going forward, accelerating the digital transition is a priority both for the government and the business community, which are aligning their efforts to adapt Portugal’s economy to the post-pandemic world and boost productivity. To achieve these targets, the business leaders we spoke to for this publication are laser focused on adopting new technologies and equipping the workforce with the right digital skills.

DIPLOMATIC SCENE

The Iberian nation remains a key player not only within NATO and the EU, but also within the Community of Portuguese Language

Countries. The agenda of the President of Portugal is filled with official visits and international travels.

As a matter of fact, in this edition we focused on the 15th edition of COTEC, held in May 2022. The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the King of Spain, Felipe VI, and the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, met in Braga for the event. COTEC Portugal’s main aims perfectly match with TBY’s editorial approach to the national economy, as it involves anticipating and reflecting on key innovation themes with an impact on the competitiveness of companies, contributing to the improvement of public policies in matters of innovation.

GREEN & SUSTAINABLE

Following the research that we conducted for our previous edition on the Portuguese economy, we again sat down with the people leading the green transition. The efforts of the nation to be a key leader in the field of sustainability have been recently reconfirmed by the fact that, by June 2022, Portugal had picked 51 consortia to invest a total of EUR7.57 billion in green and other innovative projects over the next four years, adhering to the EU’s recovery program. Prime Minister Antonio Costa announced that the selected projects would

Portugal is hoping to emerge as a truly digital economy, with post-pandemic EU funds being invested strategically to ensure the country gets on the right footing.

Image: Sean Pavone

be entitled to benefit from EUR3 billion in grants from Portugal's EUR16.6-billion recovery and resilience program.

URBAN REHAB

The concept of sustainability is also the starting point for the urban rehabilitation of the Metropolitan Area of Lisbon. Filipe Ferreira, Secretary of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML), told TBY: “We are among the first in Portugal to develop a metropolitan plan regarding climate change adaptation. We worked with the central government, municipalities, NGOs, and Lisbon University, among many others, to draw up that plan and have identified the key pillars of action that will underpin the strategy related to the sustainability of Lisbon Metropolitan Area.”

Walking around the capital, it is evident that real estate is imposing itself as one of the leading sectors, driving the growth of the Portuguese economy in 2022.

The segments that are on the radar of investors are logistics, office space, affordable housing, tourism-related properties, and student residences.

After witnessing a slight decline during the pandemic, interest in land investment and development coming from both domestic and international buyers is reaching pre-pandemic levels, if not surpassing them. By 2020, more than half of all property transactions in the Iberian nation were managed by international clients. The British and French communities continue to be the main buyers in the Portuguese property market, with Brazilians also showing an increasing interest in the sector.

IT, INNOVATION & DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

Alongside real estate, this publication also has a strong focus on the concept of innovation. The Portuguese Secretary of State for Digitalization and Administrative Modernization proudly declared that, “Portugal’s ambition is to be considered a true digital nation.” sssThe country has many geographical, infrastructural, and societal factors working in is favor, as well as a mature start-up ecosystem that leverages this digital mandate.

One of the advantages Portugal has to dominate the digital world is its location, as the Iberian nation is the closest country to the Americas and a gateway to more than 260 million Portuguese-speaking individuals.

The human factor plays a pivotal role as well. Portugal ranks fourth worldwide in terms of women in the workforce, seventh worldwide in terms of linguistic skills, has the second-highest rate of engineering graduates in Europe, and is the third-best country in regard to fixed broadband access, a factor that 76% of investors consider to be attractive.

Portugal also hosts 18 industrial clusters, 26 collaborative labs, 30 technology interface centers, and more than 150 incubators and accelerators.

Portugal is also a leading country in terms of start-ups, having the highest number per capita, including seven unicorns.

All these aspects are contributing to attracting more and more international investors, who are looking at the Portuguese market with growing interest. ✖

TRADE BALANCE (USD BLN)

GDP (CURRENT PRICES, USD BLN)

2020

MARCH

The first case of COVID-19 in Portugal is detected. In response to the pandemic, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa declares a national state of emergency.

2021

JANUARY

The 2021 presidential election is held in Portugal on January 24. Incumbent President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is reelected for a second term.

2022

FEBRUARY

Prime Minister António Costa is reelected after his center-left Socialist Party secured a landslide victory in the 2022 Portuguese legislative election. Costa has been serving as the 119th Prime Minister of Portugal since November 26, 2015.

2022

APRIL

Prime Minister António Costa announces his new executive team. For the first time, the prime minister’s cabinet reaches gender parity.

2022

JUNE

The 2022 UN Ocean Conference, cohosted by the governments of Kenya and Portugal, takes place in Lisbon. The overall theme of the conference is “Scaling up ocean action based on science and innovation for the implementation of Goal 14: stocktaking, partnerships, and solutions.”

2020

JULY

After being shut for more than three months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Spanish-Portuguese border is formally re-opened in a ceremony attended by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Prime Minister António Costa, Spanish King Felipe VI, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

2021

NOVEMBER

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa approves the dissolution of parliament and calls for a general election to be held on January 30, 2022.

2022

MARCH

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa starts a four-day visit to Mozambique, with an agenda of interests ranging from political, economic, and financial issues to military cooperation.

2022

MAY

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, Spanish King Felipe VI, and Italian President Sergio Mattarella meet in Braga at the XV meeting of the business organization COTEC Europa.

2022

JULY

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa flies to Brazil. In São Paulo, he meets with former Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

A drummer of the mounted platoon pictured during the changing of the guard at Belem National Palace in Lisbon

Image: 365 Focus Photography

A GLOBAL COMMUNITY

The current President of the Republic is Marcelo Nuno Duarte Rebelo de Sousa, who was elected for his first five-year term in 2016, having previously served as a minister and whose background includes being a law professor, journalist, and political analyst.

Along with the President of Italy and the King of Spain, the President of Portugal oversees Associação Cotec, established in 2001 with the aim of strengthening the technological competitiveness of the Italian economy in synergy with Spain’s Fundación Cotec and Portugal’s Associação Cotec. It organizes the highly prestigious Cotec Europa Symposium every year, involving the heads of state of the three countries as honorary presidents of the three Cotecs. The 2022 event was held in Braga, and excerpts from speeches made at this event by the King of Spain and the President of Italy open this chapter.

Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, in office since 2015, was reelected in 2022 and has overseen a recent cabinet reshuffle. Excerpts from a recent speech by the PM are also included in this chapter and outline his agenda for the coming years.

The international relations of Portugal are in-

twined with its historical role as a major player in the age of discovery and a former imperial power.

As a matter of fact, just like English, French, and Spanish, the Portuguese language also expanded as fundamental tool of trade through America, Africa, and Asia, imposing itself as the sixth most-spoken language in the world. Today, 240 million people globally speak Portuguese, and eight countries recognize it as their official language.

The government is well aware of the implications and importance related to the international promotion of Portuguese culture and the economic and diplomatic value soft power brings. Indeed, in 1996 Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor, and Portugal signed the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which aims to actively promote joint economic and social initiatives.

The diplomatic role of Portugal is not limited to fostering dialog among Portuguese-speaking nations, however. Minister of Foreign Affairs, João Gomes Cravinho has also kept Portugal active in NATO and the EU, especially following the beginning of the Ukraine crisis. ✖

THE TASK ahead

Portugal’s new government of António Luís Santos da Costa is intent on leveraging the country’s experience with austerity, the pandemic, and rapid growth to meet upcoming challenges and continue on its path of development.

BIO

António Costa holds a degree in legal and political sciences from the faculty of law of Universidade Clássica de Lisboa and a post-graduate degree in European studies from the Catholic University of Lisbon and is a lawyer. He was Deputy to the Assembly of the Republic between 1991 and 2004. Between 1982 and 1993, he was a member of the Lisbon Municipal Assembly and, from 1993-1995, a councilor at the Loures City Hall. He served as secretary of state for parliamentary affairs in the XIII Constitutional Government between 1995 and 1997 and minister for parliamentary affairs between 1997 and 1999. He was minister of justice from 1999-2002 and minister of state and of the internal administration from 20052007. He was mayor of Lisbon between 2007 and 2015.

WHEN, ON OCTOBER 26, 2019, the government that ceases its duties today took office, I said: “This is a government for the good and the bad times. [...] And the greater the storm, the greater our determination in overcoming it.” When recalled today, those words seemed a prediction of what we would have to face with the terrible pandemic that two months later took over the world and hit us hard as well.

My first words are, therefore, of acknowledgement and profound gratitude to the team that ceases its duties today for the determination with which it braved the storm by: ensuring the NHS’s response capabilities and the success of the vaccination process; ensuring, through an exceptional mobilization of the assistance measures to companies, employment, and income that the economy could resume its growth, that corporate investment and employment are at historically high figures, that public debt is now being cut again, and the deficit is below 3%; and championing at the EU an extraordinary program to assist with investment and the essential reforms to strengthen recovery, via a twin climate and digital transition and responding to the main social vulnerabilities, the productive potential, and our territory.

The storm did not keep us from leading the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of Europe with distinction, from drafting and negotiating the next PT 2030, nor did it steer us away from the major strategic goals we undertook.

These weren’t just years of fighting crises that we faced. They were also years of deep reforms that structurally changed our society and our economy. Today, we are a more qualified, more sustainable, more innovative, and less unequal country. That is why we grew again above the EU average, which is

why we multiplied 10-fold our technological balance of payments surplus, why we achieved new records in attracting investment, and that is why the European Commission considers Portugal to be the best placed country to become carbon neutral.

At this time of handing over a new government, I would thank everyone who is now taking on the responsibility of governing the country, as well as expressing my gratitude to everyone who leaves office. We are still facing the pandemic, healing the wounds, and yet we are already countering the effects of the war triggered by Russia by invading Ukraine.

And once more, just as during the pandemic, the Portuguese people have shown their huge sense of solidarity and their capacity to be united and overcome, ensuring the hosting and integration of thousands of Ukrainian refugees. And once more, also, we need to adopt on a national and European level the response measures to this shock, especially ensuring there are no ruptures in supply, controlling the cost of energy and essential raw materials, and helping the companies most in need and the most vulnerable families.

That is what the Portuguese expect from us again: that the government is able to respond day to day to the difficulties felt, without overlooking the building of a better future in the middle and the long term—a government that fixes problems and creates opportunities.

António Luís Santos da Costa PRIME MINISTER

“We have the duty to innovate, modernize, ensure dignified jobs, and generate wealth to progress together.”

The Portuguese people want a government that works hard for the country to protect its citizens, ensure their freedom and safety, and mobilizes them in the collective effort to modernize Portugal. The Portuguese people demand that we make up for lost time due to a political crisis they did not want, continuing on the path we have been on and moving toward a fairer, more prosperous, and more innovative country where everyone feels fulfilled and that harbors hope and confidence in the future.

It is this courage and ambition that this government guarantees. That is the commitment that I and all the members of government take on here, today, before all the Portuguese women and men: working without hesitating, against storms and torments, keeping Portugal on the path of growth and progress it has known over the last six years and facing the four major challenges that the future places on the present: respond to the climate emergency, ensure the digital transition, counter the demographic winter; and fight inequality.

The government’s program is known. It is the electoral program we presented to the Portuguese people and that we shall approve formally in the Council of Ministers, so that we can discuss it in its proper setting—in Parliament. We approved the Stability Program that pursues the trajectory of budgetary balance and sustained cut in public debt, which we have made compatible with economic, social, and environmental ambition.

The State Budget proposal for this year is ready, honoring the commitments undertaken, such as the extraordinary rise in pensions with retroactive effects, a cut in income tax for the middle class or the start of free day care for children.

Over the next few years, the country has unique conditions to break away indefinitely with a development model based on low wages, ensuring dignified and quality jobs, increasing the potential of its productive fabric, and breaking down the barriers on economic progress based on innovation, the modernization of administration and justice, internationalization, and leaving no one behind. This is our brand: modernization with social solidarity.

The fruit of years of investment in skills and strengthening our science and technology system, combining structural funds with resources from the RRF, the recovered international credibility for attracting investment. Today, Portugal has the conditions it has never had before to turn the page on a new cycle of sustainable and inclusive development. A new development cycle with an economy that produces greater added value and a fairer sharing of this value with the workers.

These are the conditions that offer us full confidence in the capacity to reach such ambitious, quantified, and scheduled goals, such as the ones associated with the government program or undertaken with the EU.

We must use this stability to anticipate

uncertainty, bravely facing the structural challenges ahead of us. We have the duty to innovate, modernize, ensure dignified jobs, and generate wealth to progress together, with inclusion and balanced accounts. This means working together, with democratic humbleness and institutional loyalty, with the engagement of the political parties and social partners to create solutions that help us face the challenges the country has to deal with. Only by committing to social dialogue, mobilizing civil society, and harboring the positive contributions of the other political parties will we be able to move forward.

The international setting is new and places new demands on us. Yet, our path remains unchanged. We have a strategy to implement, commitments to meet, and goals to fulfil. We have turned the page on austerity, we are turning the page on the pandemic, and we will turn the page on the war. Only together will we be able to write the pages of a future we want to be bright.

It is with renewed energy, determination, and enthusiasm that we are now starting this new stage, always with the willingness to serve Portugal and the Portuguese people. Together, we move forward, and we will make it. ✖

*Excerpt from the Inauguration Speech XXIII at Constitutional Government Palácio Nacional da Ajuda on March 30, 2022.

LEVEL UP

COTEC Europe 2022 explores how Portugal and its Mediterranean neighbors can have a booming post-industrial economy capitalizing on culture.

IN MAY 2022, political leaders and business leaders came together in COTEC Europe 2022 in Braga, Portugal, to exchange ideas about business, innovation, and—quite interestingly—culture. In attendance were dignitaries such as the President of the Portuguese Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the King of Spain, and the President of Italy, among many businesses people from the Mediterranean region.

This was not the first meeting of its kind. COTEC Europe is a body dedicated to entrepreneurship and business innovation in Spain, Italy, and Portugal. The joint body was established in the early 1990s to create a space for a common dialog among the three Mediterranean nations, particularly given the similarities between their economies and the common challenges faced by Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese companies within the context of Europe. COTEC Portugal, Italy’s Fondazione COTEC, and Spain’s Fundación COTEC represent the three member states in the body.

COTEC tries to advance the economic realities of Southern Europe, which are not identical to the rest of EU. Since its launch, the summit has successfully created some synergy between the three member states, coming up with recipes for the empowerment of businesses, the expansion of innovative practices, and the regulation of community policies which are tailor-made for the economic climate of Southern Europe. First, COTEC annual meetings were held in Rome (2005), Madrid (2006), and Lisbon (2007), and have continued on the same rotational basis to this day.

It was once again Portugal’s turn to host the meeting in 2022. In keeping with the tradition of the event, a theme was selected: the meeting point between culture and innovation. “A participative relationship with the culture sector could mean a bigger retention and talent development for companies, as well as [the] customer’s preference and greater reputation and placement,” explained the holders of COTEC Europe 2022, adding that “the perception of culture as a factor that stimulates creativity and innovation may generate competitive differentiation, positive economic results, added value creation and social cohesion for companies.”

The tradition of giving annual summits a central talking point helps COTEC steer clear of discussing generalities, snd instead talk about the most important issues of the day that affect business. The first COTEC summit in 2005 was inaugurated with the theme of “innovation in Europe,” but the next six summits did not have a theme until 2012, when “innovation in SMEs” was announced as the big

talking point of the summit. The 2021 edition of the event was entitled “Transition to the Intangible Economy in Europe.” This naming came after the cancellation of COTEC in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which had also paved the way for a wave of intangible economic activities.

The 2022 summit marked the first time that culture was chosen as the connecting thread of the presentations. Every previous meeting had been concentrating on the economy, industrial matters, or business activities. However, with the maturation of the Southern European markets, culture is playing a greater role in the economy. The entertainment industry, which is by nature cultural, is currently a money-spinner in all three nations. Tourism and travel, meanwhile, contribute 17.1%, 13.3%, and 12.3% to the economies of Portugal, Italy, and Spain, respectively. And above all, the ongoing culture change in Europe is redefined the meaning of work, employment, and business. The 2022 summit in Braga tried to address all of these issues and more.

The event was affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the three heads of state in attendance expressing their concerns about another act of military aggression in the continent. “While the fate of Europe is at stake, it seems more necessary than ever to have the courage to look to the future, to imagine how culture can be a vehicle for peace. For our countries, therefore, the theme chosen for this year’s meeting could not be more stimulating. Indeed, we have always considered culture to be an engine for growth, research and development,” said President Sergio Mattarella of Italy.

During the event, a number of round tables were held. In the round table “technology at the service of creativity,” a particularly cultural issue was brought up: the Spanish, Portuguese, and—to a lesser degree—Italian languages are spoken way beyond the Mediterranean region. Portuguese speakers in South America and Africa, for example, outnumber the Portuguese citizens by twenty to one. Concha Andreu, president of La Rioja region in Spain who pitched an initiative known as Valle de la Lengua, described Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, “languages of great potential that can also become an economic engine,” in areas such as education, tourism, and AI, among others. With some 200 million speakers in Latin America and Africa, the Portuguese language gives a strong cultural influence to Portugal in places beyond Europe. The country can leverage on this to find a target market for Portuguese businesses active in software, entertainment, and education. ✖

common VISION

Portugal and Spain have been working closely to foster a culture of innovation to better cope with the demands of an ever-changing environment.

JUST a few months have passed since the last COTEC Europe Forum. At that time, we were celebrating, with all due caution, the return to a certain normality, the fact that we were able to meet again at our traditional annual meeting. It was there, in Malaga, that we analyzed the lines to advance in the transition toward an intangible economy in Europe and also where the three COTEC entities, Portugal, Italy and Spain, committed themselves to work together for talent, the “most valuable of the intangibles, the one that makes all the others possible.” On this occasion, we met under the theme “Culture at the meeting point of innovation,” promoting precisely this commitment to talent and giving continuity to a humanistic perspective, essential to respond to the various challenges of our time and which is a sign of COTEC’s identity. However, in order to improve things—processes, products, environments—we first have to know them. Hence the importance of remembering, now more than ever, that nothing can be taken for granted and everything may be at risk if we do not continue to work to defend and protect it.

A culture of innovation also entails knowing that progress does not only occur when knowledge helps to identify and take advantage of opportunities but also when it is used to prevent and counteract threats such as those that are so close at hand in these turbulent times. And in this context of culture, of innovation, of European cooperation, I would also like to remember the Ukrainian people, who are suffering a terrible aggres-

sion, and we cannot but think of the suffering that is happening to them these days, and in doing so we appeal to our principles, peace, collaboration, respect for human rights, and the desire for a peaceful settlement of differences.

Perhaps the greatest legacy of the three organizations since their foundation is precisely to have fostered this kind of culture in our countries. Or, to put it another way, to have incorporated innovation among the main attributes of our culture in the hope that, if not for our own, at least for the next generations, innovation will be a behavior— an attitude—assimilated with closeness and full normality, like the rest of the customs we share.

What is now presented as a valid aspiration was not so valid just a few decades ago. Prejudices had to be overcome, complexes had to be shaken off, and examples had to be set. First, for the three countries linked by COTEC to show themselves as imminently innovative economies and societies and, more recently, and in a context of evident complexity, to unite to propose and share from COTEC Europe their own model of innovation inspired by the best values of our shared culture: open and supportive.

It is a model that does not aspire to impose itself, although it does aspire to leave its mark, because in southern Europe, as far as innovation is concerned, we have to continue learning, but we also have some things to teach. COTEC plays an important role at different levels of the education system in the three countries, working to facilitate society’s access to all the tools, knowledge, and skills that will enable them to cope with the

demands of an ever-changing environment.

Although our language is one of the few things that we do not share with our dear friends from COTEC Italy and Portugal, beyond their common roots, they have similar and complementary visions that enrich the constructive and transformative conversation that these annual meetings entail.

Undoubtedly, these are times in which culture is also key to economic progress and social well-being. Fora such as this one go into this in greater depth and show that it is possible. Let us therefore promote synergies between culture, innovation and business. Let us therefore promote continuous improvement. ✖

BIO

His Majesty King Felipe VI of Bourbon and Greece is the third child of Their Majesties the King Juan Carlos and the Queen Sofía. In 1981, he received the Collar of the Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece, granted by His Majesty the King Juan Carlos, Head and Sovereign of the Order. His father, King Juan Carlos, abdicated the Spanish throne and sanctioned the preceptive Organic Law on June 18, 2014. On June 19, 2014, Felipe took the Oath set forth in Article 61 of the Constitution and was proclaimed King before Parliament, taking the name of Felipe VI. The King holds the military rank of Captain General of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, the highest military rank, which corresponds exclusively to the supreme commander of the Armed Forces.

His Majesty Felipe VI KING OF SPAIN

*Excerpt from a speech given by His Majesty Felipe VI, the King of Spain, at the 15th edition of the COTEC Europe Meetings, May 4, 2022.

FOR the greater good

Sergio Mattarella PRESIDENT, ITALY

THE INTERNATIONAL context in which we are holding our discussion has changed profoundly, and we cannot ignore the Russian Federation’s unjustifiable aggression against Ukraine. We stand by the Ukrainian people and, while the fate of Europe is at stake, it seems more necessary than ever to have the courage to look to the future, to imagine how culture can be a vehicle for peace.

For our countries, therefore, the theme chosen for this year’s meeting could not be more stimulating. Indeed, we have always considered culture to be an engine for growth, research, and development.

I believe that it is impossible to reflect on the future of mankind without considering it connected to the world of innovation and technology. Innovation and technology are two elements that are powerfully driving this phase of our lives and I believe that, if properly governed, they can act as multipliers of knowledge and drivers of growth.

Creativity and innovation feed, as is well known, lines that are not only virtual or service-based, but are organically linked to production chains of goods. Think, for a moment, of design products or fashion. From yesterday’s “technical” tools, innovation and technology now find themselves defining parallel worlds, in the virtual and cyber domains, with a revolution in the logics and hierarchies that have traditionally governed this space.

the Commission which, through innovative and interdisciplinary solutions, aims to link culture, technology, innovation, art, and science. We need to invest in this direction, and we need to do it today.

Italy, with its National Recovery and Resilience Plan, has decided to allocate substantial resources to the culture sector—more than EUR7 billion—including measures for digitalization, innovation, and competitiveness, together with the regeneration of small villages with initiatives to enhance and restore their artistic and architectural heritage. It is my increasingly strong conviction that we need to accelerate towards achieving “European sovereignty” also in the technological field.

The pandemic crisis and the war crisis tell us how crucial cooperation is. Our ability to compete and provide our fellow citizens with a solid framework of security depend on innovation. It is essential for the EU to give itself strategic autonomy.

BIO

Sergio Mattarella holds a summa cum laude law degree from La Sapienza University and taught parliamentary law at the Law School of the University of Palermo until 1983, when he took leave of absence upon being elected member of the Chamber of Deputies for the Christian Democracy Party until 2008. During these seven parliamentary terms, he was member of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the Legislative Commission, which he also chaired. He was minister for relations with Parliament from 1987-1989 and minister of education from 1989-1990. He became deputy prime minister in 1998 and minister of defense from 1999-2001. In 2009, Parliament elected him member of the Bureau’s Council for Administrative Justice, of which he was elected deputy chairman. In 2011, he was elected Constitutional Judge by Parliament and was sworn in as member of the Constitutional Court. Mattarella was elected 12th President of the Republic in 2015 and was re-elected President in January 2022.

The intertwining with areas that have grown in importance over time is flourishing. Such as education and training, tourism, health and well-being, and environmental sustainability.

In the same reaction to the pandemic, innovative models of cultural and educational use have emerged, towards an integration of knowledge. The use of innovation and technology makes it possible to overcome, in complex territories such as those of our countries, the very notion of center and periphery, of metropolitan areas with an intense quality of modernity, and the development and inland or rural areas destined to be marginalized.

It is enough to think that, in Italy, the cultural industry as a whole accounted for EUR84.6 billion in 2020. The EU appears to be aware of the link between innovation and culture, with initiatives such as the New European Bauhaus. This is a recent proposal by

We have moved beyond the phase in which innovation means merely automating production processes. Today, we are being challenged by AI and machine learning, raising fundamental questions. How can we reaffirm the centrality of the person in models determined, so often, by superintelligence and potentially autonomous development?

At a time when war has returned to the European continent, with thousands of victims and devastating destruction that so rips apart human lives and places, we must tenaciously reaffirm that culture and innovation must be instruments of dialogue, peace, and the future.

Our three foundations must continue to play a valuable, stimulating role. I hope that in such a difficult international context, we will be able to make it our own and reaffirm the threads that bind the peoples of Europe together, which cannot be broken by those who have resorted to the brutality of violence and war. ✖

Italy, like Portugal, is working on driving digitalization, innovation, and competitiveness across sectors while ensuring culture can be a vehicle for peace and dialogue.

“Innovation and technology, if properly governed, can act as multipliers of knowledge and drivers of growth.”

hand IN HAND

Portugal and Italy have found even more areas in which to cooperate and build stronger ties, including in renewable energy and tourism, for example.

How would you describe current bilateral relations between Italy and Portugal?

Relations between Italy and Portugal are based on a solid friendship between the two countries and on an alignment of views that is reflected in the coordinated and convergent action carried out by our two countries within the EU and in the main international fora. In the last two years, there has been an unprecedented strengthening at all levels of the already excellent relations. An indicator of this qualitative leap is the number of institutional visits: 11 members of government visited Portugal. The economic and trade indicators also clearly show this new stage in relations. In 2021, bilateral trade increased from EUR5.9 billion in 2020 to a record value of more than EUR7 billion, an increase of 19%, even surpassing the EUR6.8 billion in 2019. In 2021, our exports rose by 17.8%, allowing us to maintain our position as Portugal’s fifth-largest supplier and to obtain a surplus of EUR1.3 billion. Our imports from Portugal also grew in 2022, proving the complementarity and mutual attractiveness of our markets. Investors from both countries are looking with growing interest at the opportunities that their respective production systems can offer and are developing projects in various sectors. At the end of 2021, Italian company Kerakoll invested more than EUR11 million in a production plant in the north of Lisbon, while, during the same period, the Portuguese utility EDP announced the launch of two 70-MW wind farms, bringing the company’s installed capacity in Italy to 385MW. More recently, Endesa, a subsidiary of Enel, won the tender for the green transition of Pego power plant, the country’s last coal-fired plant. This renewed focus on Portugal by Italian companies and investors is also accompanied by the choice of professionals,

digital nomads, researchers and families, who, attracted by the quality of life of the fourth-safest country in the world, are increasingly supporting the growth of the Italian resident community here, which has now exceeded 21,000 people.

What specific sectors of the Portuguese economy can Italians support?

The two economies offer great potential for collaboration, and there are complementarities in many sectors, also due to the structure of the industrial system of both countries, mainly composed of SMEs. The areas in which Italian expertise, technology, and creativity can contribute to the Portuguese economy include both traditional and emerging sectors linked to the twin transitions— energy and digital—and the EU Recovery Funds. Among the sectors in which relations are already consolidated and new spaces for cooperation may emerge include automotive, textile, footwear, and construction. In areas related to the twin transitions, Italian companies can provide a valuable contribution regarding decarbonization technologies, renewable energies, the digital sector, and ICT. Opportunities are emerging also in relatively new sectors including pharmaceutical and biomedical, real estate/ tourism, and the blue-economy, which is particularly relevant in view of the UN Ocean Conference taking place in Lisbon.

As the head of the mission, what is your main target set in your 2022 agenda?

The objective I have been pursuing since my arrival has always been to stimulate the already excellent bilateral relations in all their aspects. This means involving both the entire Italian Institutional and entrepreneurial system present in Portugal—including the Italian Institute of

Culture, the ICE Agency and the Italian Chamber of Commerce for Portugal—as well as the main Portuguese players in the economic-commercial and cultural sectors. This creates a virtuous collaborative network that will surely increase the Italian interest and knowledge of this extraordinary country. In the economic-commercial sector, I will continue the activities already implemented, whose positive results are reflected in the statistics of bilateral trade and investment, placing Portugal even more in the spotlight of the Italian economic system. I am sure that this increased attention toward Portugal will enable our companies to know the country better and fully understand its great potential in terms of trade and investment opportunities. ✖

BIO

Carlo Formosa graduated in political science from LUISS University and started his diplomatic career at the Directorate General for Economic Affairs. He later worked at the Italian embassies in Hanoi and Tehran. After his return to Rome, he was appointed chief of cabinet of the directorate general for Mediterranean Countries and the Middle East. In 2007, he was promoted to embassy counsellor and then appointed director of the department for the Near East and Peace Process. He also coordinated the political activities of the Italian Permanent Representation to the UN in New York. Formosa returned to Italy in 2013 to be appointed chief of cabinet of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. He then held several positions including deputy director general for the promotion of the Italian system abroad and director for internationalization.

In 2017, he was appointed executive vice president, director of international relations of Leonardo S.p.A and in 2020 Ambassador of Italy in Portugal. In 2009, Formosa was awarded the honour of Knight Officer of Merit of the Italian Republic.

Carlo Formosa ITALIAN AMBASSADOR IN PORTUGAL

CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE (EUR BLN)

An aerial view of the Park of Nations, a neighborhood in Lisbon built for the 1998 Lisbon World Exhibition

GOODS AND SERVICES IMPORTS (ANNUAL VARIATION IN %)

LEADING THE PACK

The Portuguese economy was deeply affected by the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.

But two years after the start of the pandemic, the economy is showing promising signs. Despite the ongoing pandemic, in 2021 as a whole, GDP growth came in at 4.9%, the highest since 1990 and after the historic recession of 8.4% recorded in 2020 due to the impact of the pandemic on economic activity, according to Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE) data. In 2019, the GDP growth rate was 2.7%.

Portugal’s economy is expected to grow by 5.8% in 2022 and 2.7% in 2023, according to new European Commission forecasts. Brussels stresses that Portugal is experiencing a “different trajectory of recovery.”

If these recently revised projections are confirmed, Portugal’s 2022 GDP growth will be the most significant among all the European nations and more than double the European average. Brussels expects inflation to come in at 4.4% by EY2022, below the European average of 6.1% but

well above the 2.3% previously forecast.

The growth forecast by the European Commission for Portugal is also higher than the 4.9% forecast by the government in its state budget.

Also, for Portugal, Brussels expects the unemployment rate to drop to 5.7% in 2022 (down from 6.6% at the end of 2021) and to 5.5% in 2023. And the public deficit will be below 2%, at 1.9%, in 2022, then fall to 1% in 2023, the European Commission forecasts.

With Costa being reconfirmed as PM, the reduced political uncertainty, together with a stronger labor market, might also drive consumer confidence, which in turn could lower precautionary savings. Currently, the savings ratio is 11%, which is about four percentage points higher than before the pandemic. A more stable majority will also help secure funds from the Next Generation EU fund. Portugal is expected to receive EUR16.6 billion (about 8% of 2021 GDP) over the next three years. This should boost and balance the current low levels of public investment in Portugal. ✖

OPENING up to the world

CCIP works to defend and promote the role of civil society and the private sector as engines of the economy and the creation of jobs.

Bruno Bobone PRESIDENT, CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (CCIP)

How did the outbreak of the pandemic impact the local economy in general, and specifically, what was its impact on CCIP? COVID-19 gave us a good and bad results. The good news has been the digitalization process; we never would have grown so fast on that side without the obligation to do so. During these hard times, we worked to support everyone, opening lines directly for members and non-members to get in touch with us for support to overcome difficulties. CCIP is fully supported by private interests; we do not receive a cent from the government. This means that we have the capacity to really help if someone comes to us for support. The pandemic impacted the activity of CCIP as well, and we are trying to get back to the way we used to work. We have developed digital capacities, but, at the same time, have lost many relationships. The digitalization we have pursued is ideal in building the capacity required for us to be flexible, but not as a substitute for the way we used to work. This is what I expect: a return to the way we used to work. Being human, we must continue to cultivate relationships in person. Ultimately, we need human, not digital, relations.

How would you evaluate the Portuguese business community’s capacity for internationalization?

over the past decade, and we have a huge capacity to do so. Moreover, Portugal does not have a big market, so we really need to look abroad. We have to transform Portugal into a platform that can bring people together. This way we can return to the global stage and also send our people to build bridges between people, companies, and countries.

How are you expanding the member list of CCIP, and which sector do you wish to see grow in terms of representation within the chamber?

We are both open and global. And while we are here to serve small and medium-sized companies, we need the larger ones to give us the capacity to serve the others. We therefore try to mix our members not based on sector, but on respective strengths. We do not care whether we have more industrial, commercial, or agricultural companies on board. It is unlikely for us to have tourist companies, because there is a confederation of tourism in operation. They do not really need much support, but we have a number of firms who are members for networking purposes.

What are your main objectives for the chamber?

BIO

Bruno Bobone has been President of CCIP since 2005 and chairman of the board of Grupo Pinto Basto, a familyowned company leader in the maritime services sector. In addition to his vast experience in the private sector, he has developed significant expertise at the head of civil society associations such as the Chamber of Commerce, the Ocean Forum, and the World Association of Christian Entrepreneurs and Managers. He is also, since 2018, president of the council of the faculty of law of Universidade Nova de Lisboa and assumed vice-presidency of the EC-CPLP in 2021.

Portugal has an extraordinary capacity for building relations and creating bonds. If you go anywhere in the world, you will likely find a Portuguese person solving issues because it is our very way of living. We also have one strong characteristic; we always worry about the other person’s feelings. This is something that gives us knowledge and an understanding of what you need. Therefore, it is extremely easy for us to supply your needs. This is what makes the Portuguese so successful in commercial activity and problem solving. We were rather closed for some years in Portugal, but now we are rebuilding this capacity. We have been growing our internationalization

The first is to secure sufficient capacity of influence; I would like the government to ensure that the money that we will reinvest in our country in recovery from the pandemic is genuinely used for development. The second objective is to work toward larger firms here achieving similar productivity levels as any other country in Europe. We also want to develop an educational initiative concerning the leadership of small and medium companies. We have already started a post-graduate course with NOVA University, with classes designed for managers and owners of small and medium sized companies. I truly believe that by doing this, we can foster productivity and support the national economy as a whole. ✖

CHAMBERS

To better encourage cooperation, knowledge transfer, and innovations between their countries and Portugal, these chambers of commerce are working on encouraging more cross-border activities.

IN TERMS OF OVERALL DATA, Spain accounts for around 30% of Portugal’s foreign commerce. Its primary supplier and client is Spain. Aside from this, there are around 100,000 companies that export or trade between the two countries. In the financial sectors, Spanish presence accounts up to 35% of this industry. There are also numerous large, medium, and small law firms specializing in assisting businesses, as well as investments, from both countries. The chamber has seen extremely reduced activity over the last two years because of the pandemic, with only monthly webinars and a small sectorial component; however, we want to get back to business quickly. We also want to do events that give us more publicity. We will have ministers for more focused events at the sector level. We also want to do one of the investment of European funds, one on logistics, and one focused on raw materials. It is also critical to open a chamber in Porto, as there are many Spanish companies installed in the north.

ITALIANS ARE MAINLY concentrated in Cascais and the southern region of Algarve. There is a new community of Italians there, mainly retirees. There is also a community of businesspeople that moved to Portugal a decade or more ago. In the last few years, the Italian community has grown remarkably, with more than 20,000 newcomers encouraged by the fiscal incentives implemented by the Portuguese government. In terms of commercial exchanges between Italy and Portugal, we are talking around EUR4 billion from Italy to Portugal and EUR2.6 billion from Portugal to Italy. Portugal is considered an appealing market for Italian investors and businesses. We are witnessing strong interest and potential in the field of medical devices. Italian technology has a solid reputation internationally, and in Portugal this segment is gaining solid share in terms of imports. There are both opportunities and potential here, and the legal framework for setting up a new business is favorable to investors.

TODAY, WE HAVE A UNIQUE opportunity: for the first time in many years, both Spain and Portugal have a common agenda on the social, political, and economic fronts. I am a strong believer of the concept of the Iberian Peninsula as a whole, as both Portuguese and Spanish people can work together to create a strong and dynamic power on the economic, cultural, and social sides. Both the vision and ambition of the chamber of commerce consist of connecting the dots on the political side, between enterprises in Portugal and Spain, and for activities related to science and academics. We should look at these fields as a single market. In the European context, when debating some of the most critical and important issues, Portugal and Spain have shown that when they join forces, their negotiation power is significantly stronger, and they can easily reach their shared goals. The same concept can be applied at a global level. To make this happen, the chamber brings together all the different players.

FRANCE IS AMONG the lead partners of Portugal along with Spain and Germany. We still have a number of ongoing projects with French companies keen to invest in Portugal. Even though French investments tripled last year, we are still in third place behind Spain and Germany. That said, we have some excellent upcoming projects, and it is great that Portugal remains a prospect for consideration in France. Knowledge transfer—especially in the field of innovation—will drive growth. French companies export services and know-how. From the pandemic, we can see a true relocation of industry: this phenomenon involves French companies as well. There are many French companies with production facilities in Asia or North Africa returning to Europe. And because of the existing incentives, often Portugal is one of the countries they choose. Portugal is positioning itself not only as an industrial hub but is also attracting a growing volume of skilled human capital.

Miguel Seco PRESIDENT, PORTUGUESE-SPANISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

Santi Cianci PRESIDENT, ITALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FOR PORTUGAL

António Calçada de Sá CHAIRMAN, HISPANO-PORTUGUESE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (CHP)

Laurent Marionnet GENERAL DIRECTOR, FRENCH PORTUGUESE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

TBY ANALYTICS PORTUGAL 2022

116 interviews were conducted for The Business Year: Portugal 2022 Analytics.

BUSINESS CONFIDENCE INDEX

How confident are you about the outlook for business in Portugal this year (1-5)?

SECTORS TO WATCH

3.45

AVERAGE RATING

ADVANTAGES & CHALLENGES

What are the most commonly mentioned advantages and challenges of doing business in Portugal?

ADVANTAGES

• Potential benefits of EU-Mercosur trade deal

• Strong ties with Spain

• Boost to digitalization due to COVID-19

• Strong sustainability initiatives

• Banking sector liquidity

• Robust M&A environment

• EU Recovery and Resilience Plan funds

• Human capital

CHALLENGES

• COVID-19-related impact on sectors such as tourism

• Increasing costs and lead times

• Challenging licensing processes for offshore energy projects

• Fragmented supply chain

• Brain drain

A GOOD START

ONE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE BUSINESS LANDSCAPE of Portugal and that of its fellow South European economies lies in the lineup of companies each sector. Portugal has considerably more start-ups in each industry than anywhere else in Europe, and it has been the birthplace of far more interesting start-ups over the last few years than any country in the Mediterranean region.

While other European economies may have a handful of wellknown, long-established brands, Portugal is home to dozens and dozens of exciting start-ups which are trying to find their feet in the country’s economic climate.

A large percentage of these are tech-related, which has led to people making comparisons between the roles of Silicon Valley, California, in the US economy and Portugal in Europe’s. Over the last decade, Portugal has seen the rise of 7-9 start-ups to the unicorn status by passing the USD1 billion mark. There are hundreds of more reasonably successful start-ups, too. Unbabel, for example, has made some breakthroughs in AI-assisted translation; CrowdProcess, also known as known as James, employs AI to provide its users with credit risk analysis; and Codacy offers an AI-powered solution for the troubleshooting and improvement of software codes—computers improving computer codes! Now, that is something interesting.

These former start-ups have now matured into established businesses, venturing into the US market as well as the European market. Indeed, teaming up with American partners has become something of a signature move for Portuguese start-ups that move beyond the initial stages.

To support this trend, Portugal has launched a new start-up program in collaboration with the European Investment Fund (EIF). Announced at Web Summit 2021 in Lisbon, the joint program is intended to raise funds to the tune of EUR250 million. The government alone has promised EUR50 million, and EIF has matched the contribution with another EUR50 million, according to Portuguese Minister of Economy and EIF’s vice president. The remaining sum will be raised through solid venture capital investment programs in 2022, including the Portugal Tech II initiative, which is currently looking for fund commitment.

Portugal Tech II is an initiative to mobilize investments toward high-potential tech start-ups that are working on technology-transfer programs. Start-ups focusing on hot topics such as fintech, digital healthcare, and AI are particularly favored. Portugal Tech II is being announced after similar initiatives such as Portugal Blue, Portugal Growth, and—its direct predecessor—Portugal Tech I,

which were met with varying degrees of success.

The initiative is expected to be a success if the experience of Portugal Tech I is any indication. “Launched in 2018, the program successfully mobilized private capital and generated about EUR5 of investments for each euro of national funding,” according to EIF.

Fundraising for Portugal Tech II, which will in turn empower tech start-ups, is perfectly in line with Portugal’s identity as Europe’s most start-up-friendly hub. This is also what EIF is after. “Building on the European Investment Fund’s unique track record in supporting European tech hubs and unicorns, this initiative crowds in private investors' resources and will help transform disruptive ideas into successful businesses that can give Portugal and Europe a leading edge in the global tech race,” said EIF’s Ricardo Mourinho Félix.

The introduction of a robust financing mechanism nicely completes a set of other enabling factors which are already in place. “Portugal has a high quality of engineering talent at a competitive cost; an extremely high level of English language proficiency,” notes TechCrunch’s editor-at-large, Mike Butcher.

These observations are also shared by others including Stephan Morais, founder and managing general partner at Indico Capital Partners, who believes despite Portugal’s small ecosystem, “the talent pool is high and growing with talent pouring in from all over the world over the last five years.” Morais also mentions three challenges of the start-up scene in Portugal, one of which is the “lack of founders turned angel investors given limited exits until now.”

Fortunately, however, supportive schemes by the government and the EIF, such as Portugal Tech II, are filling the void perfectly. The government’s spending on start-ups is easily justifiable, as there is a huge upside to having a vibrant start-up scene: they are units of pure potential that have not yet collapsed into a corporate form, which gives them agility in challenging times such as this.

To keep a stream of new start-ups popping into existence in the start-up scene, there is an incubation mechanism. Science and technology parks take promising start-ups under their wings in the very early stages, and some of these incubated companies do go far. “Talkdest, which is the latest Portuguese unicorn, left our incubator. It was created by two students,” recalled Eduardo Baptista Correia, CEO of Tagus Park in an interview with TBY.

Many are confident that a combination of incubators such as Tagus Park and funding initiatives like Portugal Tech II more than compensates for the absence of angel investors and is likely to keep Portugal the home of Europe’s finer start-ups. ✖

Financial support mechanisms reinforce Portugal’s status as the birthplace of Europe’s finer startups.

A view of the old city portion of Porto from across the Douro River

work to fine-tune our relationships with each one of them, so that they can recommend us in the market. The second value that we foster is respect for the entire ecosystem; therefore, we are extremely transparent in all our communications. The third value, imagination, fosters innovation and inspires our employees to develop new ideas to get ahead of the competition. We started with paper before switching to cards, and now we have cardless solutions. The fourth point is simplicity, basically explaining something that is complex in a simple way to better position ourselves. Finally, we are driven by our entrepreneurial spirit, being that the most important thing is to develop and adapt solutions locally.

SOCIAL BENEFITS

With the increased focus on employee welfare post pandemic, these companies are showing that there are new ways to design attractive compensation packages.

Can you elaborate on the company’s offering?

FILIPA MARTINS Edenred is present in 46 countries. We have about 50 million users around the world, 2 million merchants in the system, and about 900,000 corporate clients. Talking about the Portuguese operations, we have about 500,000 users, 41,000 merchants in our ecosystem, and about 17,000 corporate clients. We are a joint venture with a local bank, and it has been a sustainable operation in terms of growth over the years. There are three main social benefits in Portugal: the meal voucher; benefits in education and infancy; and benefits related to health, seniors, and others. All these have a specific legal framework. These are the projects that we can develop in Portugal in a closed-loop way, because our solutions are social vouchers, not payment means. This also means that companies like us manage the ecosystem, and we attribute these benefits to companies that then forward it to their own employees in the market. Employees can then use their social vouchers in a network of partner merchants.

MIGUEL SANTO AMARO Companies today have to be more flexible and find better,

more engaging solutions to attract and retain employees. We help companies design compensation packages so they are more fiscally interesting. It is about becoming the bank of employees featuring the user experience. There are many neo-banks trying to do this, but they generally focus only on the salary. They might not provide access, tools, or information about how an employee can do their taxes or what their total compensation is including the pay slip, a lunch card, health insurance, discounts, and so on. We help employees visualize all that so they can have a full 360-degree view of their finances. We want to democratize access to a great compensation solution. Our actual solution is a dashboard for a company as well as a mobile app and a VISA card for employees. It is an app and a smart card together that replaces many other things. The user experience is much better.

How do you shape your competitive advantages in a small but highly competitive market?

FM We have five values that guide us through this. The first is passion for customers, and our customers are merchants, users, and clients (MUC). We

MSA Our major focus is the SME market because it is an untapped market. We started in Portugal in January 2021 and have 2,000 clients; we are growing around 30% month to month. In terms of compensation, we conducted EUR30 million worth of transactions in 2021. We process around EUR300 per person every month. We must educate companies about the concept of flexibility: over 80% of our companies did not have a solution before Coverflex. We are onboarding around 200 clients per month, which is only possible if we do it digitally. We are building a compensation package that is in a complete new category, and the challenge is educating the market on how it is an easy tool that can be set up in a few hours. This can be done online or with our support.

What are your main targets in 2022?

FM We have a clear view of what we want to offer the market in 2022, and we expect to accomplish it this year. We will reinforce and enlarge the scope to broaden our offer of social benefits to be a multiflex benefit platform. We will also accelerate the digitalization of the customer journey. Finally, in the CSR area, our current initiatives are just the beginning for what will come in the next year.

MSA We want to have a global company. We will be comfortable in Portugal, but expanding beyond Portugal is our number-one priority. We are Europeans so we want to focus on Europe for the moment, where there are different currencies, cultures, and laws in terms of compensation and salaries. That will remain our focus. That means raising enough capital to be a top brand that also enables us to hire the team to do that. ✖

Filipa Martins CEO, EDENRED PORTUGAL

Miguel Santo Amaro CEO, COVERFLEX PORTUGAL

BERNDTSON

Given the importance of talent in all organizations, initiatives to increase engagement and develop leadership qualities are becoming an important aspect of HR.

How is the company positioned to make change happen in the local business community?

CARLOS SEZÕES We are trying to address leadership and culture in a holistic approach and manner. We try to develop projects that can make the company more effective and a great place to work. That is why we address corporate goals and also assess people, employees, and their expectations. We address issues such as engagement and employment branding. We do both the human side of projects and the corporate side. We try to position ourselves across a wide range of sectors with companies. The company was born in Portugal, it is a Portuguese-based idea, but our mindset is global. Our first client was in Portugal. Our second client was outside Portugal, so we try to address these areas worldwide. We are looking to the Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa to expand our business. The main sponsors for these projects are typically executive level management. They have a broader view of the company and they feel that something must be transformed. The top level management are the first enablers of change. The second enablers are HR managers, because they have the view of the people, the issues and expectations of the driving forces within the company. It is a matter of trying to define a specific scope of transformation and step by step, trying to address that.

LUÍS SÍTIMA We are a multinational company specialized in leadership and talent. For over 50 years, Odgers Berndtson has been helping some of the world’s largest and best organizations to recruit, advise, and develop their senior talent. We are in 33 countries and we have been in Portugal since 1993. We aim to be the trusted advisors on leadership and talent for our clients. We think of leadership from A to Z, including recruiting top leaders, namely CEOs, C-Level positions, boards, and directors. However, our activity is not limited to executive search; we also advise leaders on their assessment and development, how to build board and top team effectiveness, developing the best leadership and talent strategy for the company, and improving organizational

effectiveness. We believe that progress and evolution are all about people. People make the difference, in all aspects of the business and the society. We focus on recruiting, advising and developing great people across the organization. We do it on a case by case basis, putting the right people with the right competencies in the right places at the right time. Our clients should be, and are, the most important companies in Portugal—mainly top-level companies but also medium-sized companies. We want to be their trusted advisor on integrated solutions and leadership and talent.

What are your key ambitions and targets set in your agenda for the year to come?

CS The quality of our targets is more important than the quantity. We want to impact as much as possible, and impact as many people as possible. The main issue in terms of providing change in organizations relates to impact. We have a B-side called social innovation which we are also focused on. We are providing mentoring and coaching for NGOs, associations, start-ups, community projects. That is also in our DNA to transform, positively, the world, not just the corporate world but also the entire ecosystem in providing support to three small social innovation businesses that are focused on education and fighting social exclusion and poverty. We want to try to improve literacy among children and to teach soft skills at schools.

LS First, we want to continue to growth. We have tripled the value of the company in the last four years. The objective is not to continue at this rate, though we want to continue to grow by double digits. The second point is to grow further on the leadership and organizational consultancy side, where we built strong track record and partnerships with some of the biggest companies in Portugal in last years. Third, we also have other areas of growth, both in executive search and consultancy, by investing more on technologies and AI. Finally, to continue to attract, retain and develop the best leadership and talent advisors in the market, because our business, as all business, is all about people. ✖

Carlos Sezões MANAGING PARTNER, DAREFY

Luís Sítima MANAGING PARTNER, ODGERS

BUILDING THE WORLD, BETTER

TPF - CONSULTORES DE ENGENHARIA E ARQUITETURA, SA, is a nationally and internationally recognized company that provides integrated engineering and architectural services, having been involved, both in studies and design, and in supervision, in emblematic Portuguese and international works, such as Tâmega’s Hydropower Scheme, Alqueva’s Multipurpose Project, Marão Tunnel, and Algiers Metro.

TPF Consultores’ corporate culture is based on continuously developing innovative and sustainable solutions, namely through the implementation of BIM methodologies.

Through BIM methodologies, TPF Consultores has achieved innovative solutions in its projects, allowing for the reduction and optimization of resources. This is a line followed by the company in recent years with the aim of delivering projects of excellence with efficiency, thus contributing to the sustainability of the planet.

With engineering and architecture services in various sectors, TPF Consultores is recognized by LNEC (Portuguese Laboratory of Civil Engineering) as a Quality General

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

Manager for Construction Projects, in several categories: Buildings and Built Heritage, Roads, Urbanization Works and Other Infrastructure and Hydraulic Works. In addition to this certification, it also holds a Security Clearance in NATO SECRET, SECRET and SECRET E.U. degrees, issued by the National Security Authority and has an Integrated Quality, Safety and Environment Management System.

With more than 40 years of experience, TPF Consultores operates in the sectors of Water and Sanitation, Environment, Agricultural Development, Urban Development, Sports and Leisure, Education and Teaching, Energy, Real Estate, Industry, Health, Transport and Tourism. Having an organizational structure with specific Services for Hydraulics and Environment, Geology and Geotechnics, Buildings’ Engineering and Architecture, Bridges and Viaducts and Transport Infrastructures, allows it to promote and develop innovative and 360º solutions, that respond in the best way to the client’s needs , offering services in Studies and Design and in Construction Management and Supervision.

42 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN INTEGRATED ENGINEERING AND ARCHITECTURE SER-

VICES

TPF Consultores, whose origin dates to 1980, ensures the fully integrated supply of Engineering and Architecture services, from Technical Advice, Design, Management and Supervision of complex projects, combining innovation and technical excellence. It is part of TPF Group, an internationally recognized player, with subsidiaries and branches in 44 countries and operating in 60 countries on 5 continents, with three Centres of Expertise: Water and Environment (Portugal), Buildings (France) and Transport (Spain), whose mission is to support the different companies of the group in the different sectors, reinforcing their levels of competitiveness and knowledge in the different markets where they operate.

With a wide portfolio of clients, from public to private entities, in the national and international market, with contracts in several continents, TPF Consultores is headquartered in Lisbon, but is also present in Angola, Algeria, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, Mozambique, and East Timor. ✖

Carla André MANAGING DIRECTOR, REVIVA PORTUGAL

What is your strategy to expand and consolidate your presence in the country?

Our plan for development is focused on looking at the market and understanding where the opportunities are. It is clear for us that there are some structural problems in the Portuguese market. The market is composed of SMEs that are chronically over-leveraged with unbalanced capital structures, so always living on the edge in terms of capital needs. Their indebtedness is very focused on the short term, therefore they are very dependent on traditional banks. By recognizing this, we are investing in this business segment focused on special cases, under which we expect to be able to approach these companies that have potential to grow if the money is in place, and if they have a partner that recognizes their needs and how to restructure their balance sheets.

What are your main priorities for the year to come?

We have come from two years that were demanding, so our priority is to stabilize the company and at the same time being able to take the opportunities that the market will offer, and to be able to support the companies in Portugal through this new business market.

BearingPoint’s motto is “We transform businesses.” How do you do that?

We want to leave a real imprint on our clients. In my spare time, I lecture at ISCTE for the executive MBA program and am a professor of digital transformation at Nova SBE in Lisbon. Digital transformation is about looking at the processes of companies and bringing in technology to prevent errors, make it more efficient, and prevent people from doing repetitive work. We leave our clients with technology that will enable them to be better and perform better.

How would you assess the responsiveness of the Portuguese business community in adapting their operations to new trends?

There is always a resistance to change, though the pandemic brought about a completely different mindset to work. It showed that we can be profitable and have a successful environment with teams that are connected with technology and not physically present. For some companies, not only in Portugal, COVID-19 represented a significant problem. All the businesses that were supported by a solid IT infrastructure performed well and were able to continue operating; however, almost every business faced challenges, with many delayed projects.

Can you elaborate on the inception, evolution, and main highlights of Airfree?

Tiago

In April 2020, you launched Bairro, a B2C platform, giving final consumers access to fresh agricultural products. What was the reception like?

It was an interesting project developed to help smallholder farmers and small stores sell their products to people who were at home during the pandemic. We launched Bairro during the first wave of the pandemic in early 2020, and the results were amazing. With our internal know-how, in a few weeks, we developed a platform that was able to sell and deliver products to consumers at home.

What are your short-terms targets and goals set in 2022?

We want to continue to grow in terms of market transactions and attracting more farmers and customers to the platform and the system. We want to gain the confidence of our customers to continue to use our platform. We will continue to invest in the crops we are working on while also looking for other products. We are also looking at wine as an opportunity to grow our platform.

My son suffered from sneezing fits all the time, and the doctor told us nothing could be done. I thought about purifying the air, and that is how the business started. One year later, I had a prototype and, in 2005, we started with the product you see today, Airfree. Of course, that used different technology, though the appearance has not changed. It is based on an extremely innovative patent that I developed: thermo sterilizing system (TSS) technology. Then, COVID-19 caused demand for our devices to skyrocket. We had many orders, though we could not find parts because we import our circuit boards from China. However, in the end we managed to get all the components needed, and sales were about four times higher than what we were expecting.

More than 90% of your products are exported. What key markets are currently driving your business?

We manufacture everything in Portugal with three different ventures. Everything is made here; we only import circuit boards and power boards. The main exports are to the US, which represents 50% of our exports. We also have Europe and Asia. The Asian market was performing well but is slowly declining.

Manuel Lopes da Costa COUNTRY MANAGING PARTNER, BEARINGPOINT

Pessoa CO-FOUNDER & CEO, AGRI MARKETPLACE

Carlos Matias CEO, AIRFREE

José Rui Marcelino CEO & DESIGN MANAGER, ALMA DESIGN

The role of design should be improving and simplifying people’s lives. How do you apply this concept to your operations?

At Alma Design, we believe we can have an influence on creating a better world. We generate ideas—and products—that improve people’s lives in terms of perception, function, agility, and energy consumption.

Alma Design has more than 800 projects today. We design new projects from scratch as well as improve existing projects for our clients, getting into an R&D project, and determining what the future will be like in a specific area. We apply our proactive attitude and know-how to a variety of fields: transportation design, product design, nautical design, and more.

How will your activity evolve over the medium term?

In the last two or three years, despite the COVID-19 crisis, we asked ourselves “where do we go?” We have a footprint all over the world. We have great partners in Germany, Brazil, Israel, the US, and Spain. We go wherever we see opportunities and clients that can capitalize on our knowhow.

How would you evaluate the resiliency of the company and the results that you achieved during the pandemic?

It was a hard and challenging period indeed; however, at the same time, the full supply chain, specifically logistics, emphasized the resilience of the sector and what it meant for the wider economy. For us, it was important to maintain the service level and to be present in the field despite all the constraints. We were able to brave the pandemic without missing a delivery. And this was recognized by the markets, both on the FMCG and the retail side.

How is LPR positioned to apply and carry out innovation to boost its performance, optimize its services and increase efficiency in the supply chain?

First of all, this is a growing trend. We have some customers asking us about our action plan and how it will be implemented. This is a mindset change, enabling all parties to move forward. And just to highlight the importance of sustainability, even some companies in some measures, which is our case today, we have it as part of our bonus objectives. So, part of our salary is now related to sustainability KPIs. Apart from that, we are implementing several measures that will lower CO2 emissions. We are installing solar panels at all our centers and re-using our pallets at these facilities.

Duarte Guedes CEO, HERTZ & VICE-PRESIDENT, HIPOGEST GROUP

What are your key divisions?

The main division is car rental, but we also have a construction equipment rental company, and a motorcycle rental product called Hertz Ride, which we built internally and expanded to a few countries beyond Portugal, including the US. Hertz licensed us as a sub-brand just for large motorcycles for motor tourism; we also have a transportation company that moves our cars around and also moves cars from other auto companies.

How do you promote innovation as part of your competitive advantage?

We are innovative not only from a technology perspective, but also from a cultural standpoint. Some years ago this was considered the car rental industry, but today we are in the mobility ecosystem. We are in the middle of a major transformation in terms of mobility and the way people approach it. The question is increasingly whether to own a car or simply renting one when needed. If you drive in the city, how free are you in terms of access? Of course, technology is key, but I think that given product innovation, it is important for us to find our place among the changes.

Flavio Carvalho Guerreiro COUNTRY MANAGER, LPR

RENEWABLE ENERGY SNAPSHOT 1Q2021

An array of solar panels pictured on the Portuguese Island of Madeira

2019 ECO-INNOVATION SCOREBOARD (SELECTED

Image: DaLiu

Green Economy & Energy

EASY BEING GREEN

Portugal is a leader on environmental protection thanks to a radical commitment to the principles of green economy and a pledge to build back better after COVID-19.

In 2019, Portugal achieved an Eco-Innovation Index score of 100, positioning it 12th among EU member states. This also happens to be the EU average.

Its response to COVID-19 is led by a green vision, with 35% of stimulus earmarked for environmental measures and a five-year roadmap for sustainable and inclusive growth focusing on resilience and on climate and digital transitions.

The first signal of serious commitment to support the development of the concept of green economy was taken by the government back in 2014, when it gathered together business leaders, NGOs, and public institutions with the objective of designing a national agenda based on green economy. The resultant Compromiso para o Crescimento Verde is a roadmap to guide the national green transition through green jobs, resource efficiency, natural capital, improved biodiversity, and clean energy.

A new set of green taxes, a decarbonization plan, and a green jobs program have resulted from Compromiso para o Crescimento Verde so far.

Portugal has also entered the field of clean energy strongly, aiming to achieve the ambitious goal of 40% generation by renewables by 2030.

As far as the renewable energy sector is concerned, Portugal is ranked as one of the markets

with the most appealing investment opportunities: in May 2022, EY released the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index, positioning Portugal 23rd in a list ranking the 40 most-appealing global markets in green investments.

Following the Ukrainian crisis, energy security has risen to the top of governments’ priority lists. As gas prices are expected to grow, Portugal is now pushing and expanding the spectrum of national programs promoting renewables, aiming to reduce the dependance on imported energy.

The scenario that the CEO of APREN describes during a conversation with TBY confirms this:

“In addition to the increase in installed renewable power, the country is setting new targets and defining new paths that aim to ensure a fair and secure energy transition to answer to the Fit for 55% and, more recently, REPowerEU, which will disclose opportunities across the generation value chain, including the decentralized production of renewable electricity through self-consumption and renewable energy communities, energy storage, green hydrogen, and ocean energy technologies,” he said, while also noting that “due to the current situation in Ukraine and the following energy crisis, the Portuguese government […] published a decree to simplify the permitting process of renewable energy projects and announced its intention to hold a capacity auction for offshore wind that will allocate 2-5GW, which is a much higher target than the 0.3GW pointed out in the NECP 2030.” ✖

OBJECTIVES in place

Pedro Amaral Jorge CEO, PORTUGUESE RENEWABLE ENERGY ASSOCIATION (APREN)

What is the current scenario and the trends related to renewables in Portugal?

APREN is focused on promoting renewable energy deployment in the country and underlining the central role that Portugal can play in this sector in the future.

BIO

Pedro Amaral Jorge graduated in mechanical engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico and also holds an EMBA with a focus on finance and operations from IESE/AESE. In his previous professional experience, he worked as a specialist in structuring and financing projects in the private sector investment aspect for the African Development Bank (AfDB) focusing on the sub-Saharan region. Jorge has accumulated more than 15 years of international experience, having worked and lived in different markets, especially in Europe, South America, Africa, and the Middle East. He has a total of 20 years of professional experience in top management positions, assuming functions as director of business unit, member of the executive committee, executive director, and CEO in companies such as Mitsubishi, METITO Utilities, Indaqua, Mota-Engil Group, SACYR, SOMAGUE, and IDOM.

The deployed capacity in renewable energies has increased significantly in recent years, more specifically an increase of 59 % from 2005 to 2021, which demonstrates the investment that has been made in the sustainable development of the energy sector and that shall continue, to achieve the decarbonisation targets for Portugal by 2050. In 2021, we must mention the high increase in installed solar photovoltaic capacity, which increased by 73% YoY. Alongside this increase in renewable power, there was a fall in the installed capacity of technologies dependent on fossil fuels. In addition to the increase in installed renewable power, the country is setting new targets and defining new paths that aim to ensure a fair and secure energy transition to answer to the Fit for 55% and more recently the REPowerEU, which will disclose opportunities on all generation value chain, including decentralized production of renewable electricity through self-consumption and renewable energy communities, energy storage, green hydrogen, and ocean energy technologies. Currently, Portugal has about 63% of its electricity production from renewable energy sources. According to the Portuguese National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP 2030), the target for incorporating renewables into electricity consumption is 80% by 2030, supported by an increase in the deployed capacity of renewable energy technologies, mostly solar photovoltaic (9GW) and onshore wind (3.6GW). However, due to the current situation in Ukraine and the following energy crisis, the Portuguese government, in response to the Commission’s initiative REPowerEU, anticipated the 80% target to 2026, published a Decree-Law to simplify the permitting process of renewable energy projects and announced the intention to hold a capacity auction for offshore wind that will allocate 2-5GW, which is a much higher target than the 0.3 GW pointed out in the NECP 2030.

How is APREN positioned to promote a higher share of renewable electricity in order to support the reduction of CO2 emissions and fight climate change?

APREN’s mission is to promote the deployment of renewable technologies for electricity and green hydrogen generation; support, encourage and collaborate directly with policymakers and government entities to create a sustainable and cost-effective strategy for the renewable energy sector; support, advise, and promote renewable direct and indirect electrification; and enlighten and disseminate the importance and quality of the Portuguese endogenous energy resources. APREN has an important role as the representative of the renewable energy sector near the official entities, working daily to ensure an open dialogue between the various stakeholders and the sustainable development of the sector, having always represented the view and strategy of its members. Considering that Portugal is a privileged country, given its geography and investment in the renewable sector, renewables are already contributing to a significantly greener Portugal. Nevertheless, there are still hot topics that barriers to the sector deployment which APREN works to guarantee that it is always on top of relevant issues to properly find and propose solutions that promote the direct and indirect electrification since it is the most cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions.

What are the medium-term objectives of APREN, and what are the targets of association set in your 2022 agenda?

In regard to our medium-term objectives, our central goal of promoting the renewables deployment in the country and underlining the central role Portugal can have in this sector remains on the top of our priorities. Given the actual context, where it became even more urgent to not only diminish all climate impacts but also to create an energy independent Europe, we intend to do so by maximizing renewable energy deployment on our national energy mix, following the key topic that currently constitute the main blockades such as an adequate and resilient network and energy integrated systems, market and regulatory stability, energy literacy across the society and adequate knowledge creation and human resources training to complete all tasks mentioned. ✖

laying THE GROUNDWORK

In just a few short years, Akuo Portugal has become a leading contributor to Akuo worldwide, with 20-25% of the group’s total capacity in the Iberian nation.

Joao Macedo COUNTRY MANAGER, AKUO ENERGY

How would you assess the current developments defining the Portuguese renewable sector?

The market of renewables is quickly becoming one of the most dynamic segments of the national economy. Ease of doing and starting a business in Portugal is much easier today, and the renewable market has become more transparent since the auction system was implemented in 2019. Based on the national energy mix and outstanding local resources, renewables are a necessity and an opportunity at the same time. In 2018, Akuo decided to set up a branch in Portugal. When we entered the market, the sector was not as regulated as it is today. The main challenge was related to the grid connection, which is the main bottleneck for a quicker penetration of renewables. In 2019, the government realized the importance of allowing companies and operators to bid on the grid and get the best value for this scarce public good. It was a good time for us, as we entered the market in 2018, we had all the time needed to prepare for this auction securing land across the key solar regions of the country. We managed to be among the awarded bidders with 370MW (three lots) of grid connection in Alentejo region. For the group worldwide, we have currently 1.2-1.3GWp in operation. So, after ensuring 450MWp in Portugal, we can proudly declare that 20-25% of the group’s total capacity will be in Portugal. Winning this auction cemented Akuo Portugal as a leading contributor to Akuo worldwide. It is a major achievement for the company.

What are your main ongoing projects, and what is Akuo’s business model?

The main projects of Akuo in Portugal are the three projects secured at the 2019 solar auction. We aim to start construction

this year following the last two difficult years. In November 2021, a public session with the presence of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Environment and Climate Action, and the Secretary of State for Energy was held in Monforte, which is the most advanced of the three projects. It has 180MWp, and construction should start shortly. We are facing challenges mainly linked to increase of investment cost and disruptions of supply chains driven by commodity prices increase and the war context. On the other side, the importance of renewables is currently emphasized given their fundamental role for the EU energy independence. Akuo’s business model, is always the same: we keep the assets. We generate our revenue selling electricity. This model implies that we will develop, finance, build and operate the asset. Traditionally, companies operating in the sector developed and sold the asset to other companies. They make money from the sale of the product. We make money from the sale of electricity. We have a long-term vision, characterized by a long-term positioning in the market. Akuo has a strong commitment in Portugal. We are developing projects to operate them in the long term—30 years—we took the decision to set up our internal operation in maintenance. The O&M and Asset Management local company will provide services to our three projects and will also be able to sell service to third parties in the market at competitive price.

How will do you differentiate yourselves in what is a small, competitive market?

The market is getting increasingly competitive. To make a difference, a long-term vision is key. Even 25 years might not be long enough to make a return on an investment. It would take 30 years to bring out

the big players’ financial power that had a long-term vision to make a difference. It is not a market or investors that want a high return quick. It is a market for the very long term at a steady pace. Second, we are a private company. Akuo’s two owners offer the company flexibility, which is an advantage. We are quick to take decisions and are able to take risks, which is key in a fast-moving, changing environment. ✖

BIO

João Maria de Macedo Santos is CEO of Akuo Portugal since the creation of the entity in 2018. Following the success at the first national solar auction held in 2019, he has built a team of 12 people. Between 2015 and 2018, Macedo was VP Project Finance at Akuo headquarters in Paris, having closed several landmark transactions for the Group including 180MW wind in the US, 100MW in Uruguay and 120MW in Eastern Europe. Prior to that, he was Project Director at Egis Projects in Paris having worked in the structuring of an airport transaction in the Philippines. João also spent 2 years as Vice President at Newstate Partners in London, working on Project Finance advisory mandates in Africa. He started his career at the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg as Junior Investment Officer for urban regeneration projects in Portugal and Spain. João has 15 years of experience in business development and project structuring and financing in infrastructure in several geographies, João is graduated from leading French engineering school ENSTA Paris with a second Msc in mathematics and mathematics methods in economics and finance from Université Paris I –Panthéon Sorbonne.

A RENEWABLE REVOLUTION

Portugal ranks fifth in the EU in terms of the highest renewable energy generation capacity, with 34% of the total energy mix.

THE ENTIRE PLANET HAS MADE the transition to renewable energies a priority in the last two years. And, above all, the EU stands out as one of the places most interested in making progress in this area in an attempt to reduce its energy dependence on imports of fossil fuels from abroad. Precisely within this block of countries, Portugal stands out as one of the most advanced after achieving that 34.1% of the energy consumed comes from renewable sources in 2020.

With this percentage, the country is only surpassed by Sweden (60.1%), Finland (43.8%), Latvia (42.1%), and Austria (36.5%). In addition, the country has even had months in which 100% of the energy consumed is renewable. This was the case in March 2018, when electricity generation from renewable sources was 4,812GWh more than the 4,647GWh consumed during the entire month, according to data from the country’s renewable energy association, APREN. Another case was in February 2014, when renewable sources accounted for 99.1% of the national energy consumption.

With these figures, the country is not far from reaching its target of 47% of gross final energy consumption from renewables by 2030. To achieve this share, which will be critical for the country to support its electrification efforts, the government is primarily pursuing onshore and offshore solar and wind projects, as well as supporting distributed generation developments. According to the national energy and climate plan PNEC 2030, solar and wind should continue to grow, while the country is starting to support pilot projects for biomass and renewable gases such as hydrogen. This is a package of measures to help Portugal decarbonize and transition to a green economy.

To deepen this process of change is what the EU is seeking with the Next Generation funds, of which Portugal was scheduled to start receiving part of its allocation of EUR16.6 billion as of June 2022. Of that amount, EUR13.9 billion are grants and non-repayable aid, while EUR2.7 billion are loans. Approximately EUR3.59 billion of the total EUR 16.6 billion allocation will go to renewable energies, as one of the main objectives of Next Generation is to support projects related to the climate transition, such as sustainable mobility, decarbonization, or achieving greater energy efficiency.

The development of offshore projects is essential for the country to achieve the goals described above. Portugal already has two float-

ing photovoltaic parks on rivers, one in the Alqueva reservoir and the other in the Alto Rabagão reservoir. The Alqueva has 12,000 photovoltaic panels with the capacity to produce 7.5GWh of electricity per year, enough to supply 15,000 families. Meanwhile, the Alto Rabagão began as a pilot project in 2017 and was scheduled to be inaugurated in its commercial phase in 2022.

Alto Rabagão is a project of the Portuguese utility company EDP. This company is a multinational with a significant portfolio of renewable projects. In fact, it has a joint venture with Engie called Ocean Winds, a company that plans to invest about EUR1.5 billion in wind energy globally. EDP began to advance in the development of this type of energy with the Windfloat Atlantic project, a semi-submersible floating wind farm located 20km off the Portuguese coast. In its first year of operation, it generated 75GWh.

The contribution of offshore wind in Portugal is still modest. In fact, the country plans to hold its first offshore wind auction in 2023 in an attempt to achieve an output of up to 6GWh. These levels are still small compared to the 13-GW offshore wind auction to be launched by Spain, but lag far behind the 150GW that will be launched by Belgium, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands combined. In any case, offshore wind is one of the main legs of the future development of renewable energy in Portugal.

Currently, wind power accounts for approximately 26% of total renewable energy generation. Solar accounts for 4%, while biomass accounts for around 3%. The rest of renewable energies provide the remaining 1% to reach 34% of renewable generation capacity. On the other hand, hydroelectric dams contribute approximately 32% of the country’s electricity mix.

Portugal has already achieved a great development in terms of renewable energy; however, it is still a country that enjoys great opportunities for investment. In fact, it is the 23rd country in the ranking of the 40 most attractive global markets for renewable energy investments, according to the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) report published by EY in May 2022. Of the technologies to be developed, the ones with the greatest potential in Portugal are solar photovoltaic, onshore wind and biomass, according to the RECAI report. ✖

SOLAR

Like much of the Iberian Peninsula, Portugal is blessed with many hours of sunlight allowing for innovative floating solar farms to aid in the transition away from fossil fuels.

34.1%

47%

EUR 16.6 B

FLOATING PHOTOVOLTAIC PARKS

Location: Alqueva reservoir

Panels: 12,000

Installed capacity per year: 5MW Built by: EDP

ALTO RABAGÃO

Production commenced: 2017

Expected to commence commercial phase: 2022

Panels: 840 Built by: EDP

Installed capacity: 218kW

Energy consumption from renewable energies (2020)

Target energy consumption coming from renewables by 2030

EU allocation from Next Generation fund as of June 2022

SOLAR ENERGY

Portugal has become a key country for the green economy in recent years, in particular solar, and more and more companies are coming in to provide solutions for both companies and consumers.

Pinho COUNTRY DIRECTOR PORTUGAL & COUNTRIES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT COORDINATOR, HELEXIA

PORTUGAL IS THE THIRD COUNTRY in which Helexia established operations. Being a business unit that has being steadily growing, we are important not only in terms of volume, but also as a role model for new implementations, and as well to learn from improvements identified within the process. Our concern or main intention is to focus on multiple sectors, mitigating investment risk, and naturally to specialize in such sectors we identify as strategic for us. Our vision is to develop with our clients a clear and ambitious roadmap for decarbonization, helping them go from their current stage until they are carbon neutral. In terms of sectors, we are looking for large energy consumers with steady energy consumption profiles, which preferably match the solar production load curves such as agro industry, ceramics, retail, cold logistics, and so forth. We also recently entered the electric mobility business as an infrastructure and charging stations provider and operator. We differentiate ourselves by integrating a wide and comprehensive range of services, skills, and products, adding investment capacity and asset management capabilities. We design a long-term vision with our clients and work closely with them to make it a reality.

WE ARE AN INTEGRATED developer and an expert in the green economy. We started the business in the UK in 2011, and we now have offices in some 20 countries. In Europe, despite the high solar radiation here, it has low penetration thus far. At the end of 2021, Portugal had around 1.7GW, much lower than any other country in Europe; however, the ambition is to reach 30GW in the coming years. From this perspective, it makes sense for Hive to be present in Portugal. The fact that we are vertically integrated and have a global presence helps significantly, because we can take a project from A to Z, as one of our subsidiaries is an EPC company. We have a strong track record of different projects and are willing to take development risks and are open to new technology and new types of investments. In addition, innovation is key for us. We pursue innovation through two different perspectives. In our direct business, we tend to be early movers with new trends, such as storage or green hydrogen. The other way we pursue innovation is via acquiring stakes in other companies that are shaping the future of this market and are extremely innovative.

SOLCOR STARTED SEVEN YEARS AGO in Chile, with two Belgians getting accepted into Startup Chile and grew out to be the market leader in distributed generation in Chile. There, we started implementing something that was new in South America but was already well established in Europe and the US: We provide solar installation for the commercial and industrial sector, without them having to invest anything. In return, the client agrees to buy the electricity produced by the solar panels on their roof at a price below the normal grid electricity prices. In Portugal, we started to apply the same model as in Chile three years ago. The regulation is somewhat different, though the concept is the same. We also develop installations where the client does the investment. In Portugal, the payback period for these installations is about four to five years, depending on several factors. In the beginning, it was difficult, not knowing the language, and so on, but we were able to grow relatively strongly in 2021. 2022 will be a record year not only for us but for all companies in the sector. The recent increase in electricity prices results in companies actively looking for solutions to mitigate the high prices.

Luis

Carlos Serradas GENERAL MANAGER PORTUGAL, HIVE ENERGY

Vincent Vangeel CEO, SOLCOR PORTUGAL

Agrinergie®

GREEN ECONOMY

Portugal has abundant energy resources including wind, solar, and wave energy, and there are myriad opportunities for companies to offer their products and services in this growing arena.

Ana Brito Melo SENIOR ADVISOR, WAVEC OFFSHORE RENEWABLES

OUR MAIN ACTIVITY IS RELATED to R&D projects funded by the European Commission. Our focus continues to be offshore wind energy and wave energy, but also activities related to offshore aquaculture, which is progressing. We currently have one project called BlueForests, which aims to rebuild marine forests in Portugal. It is an innovative project that is funded by EEA grants with a number of Portuguese partners and one Norwegian partner, SINTEF. WavEC is bringing to this project its knowledge of technology, instrumentation, and environmental impact studies. We integrate the knowledge from universities by connecting the academic sector with the business sector, and we are able to deliver specialized services to diversified clients. We now have a strong focus on offshore wind because there will be significant developments in Portugal in the coming years, and we have extensive knowledge in this area to contribute to the growth of this sector. We have been working with other partners in the last years in terms of market studies, site selection, environmental impacts assessment, O&M strategies, instrumentation and data analysis, and technical field work, so we have the knowledge to assist all companies that come to Portugal to develop their offshore energy business.

Filipe Vasconcelos MANAGING PARTNER, S317 CONSULTING

WE ARE A MANAGEMENT CONSULTING boutique that specializes in energy, water, and sustainability. We are strong in everything related to the energy transition, namely the water and water services sectors; addressing the needs of mostly the developing world; and sustainability in terms of finance, carbon instruments, and de-carbonization. These are the three main areas that we work in. We have an integrated approach and do not only look at the energy component, but also at industry as a whole and understanding the final impact in terms of the environment in the long term and the returns of our actions and projects. We have an impact on society. We started in 2015 with a strong focus on the international market, and about 70% of our business is outside of Portugal. The Portuguese market, although interesting, is not large enough for us. We have been growing steadily in these last seven years. Emerging economies are saturated with fierce competition; there are much bigger players working in everything in terms of the energy transition, energy efficiency, renewables, water management, water infrastructure, and so on. Despite the competition, we managed to develop a presence in several emerging economies in the last seven years.

Sofia Santos FOUNDER, SYSTEMIC

SYSTEMIC WAS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED in 2013, though I established another company before in 2004, also related to consultancy in sustainability. Systemic really picked up in 2019, growing from only two people at that time to 10 now. Many companies and financial institutions started to realize they needed proper sustainability criteria, ESG policies, and all that, and demand just continued to grow. We also have many requests from city town halls, universities, large and small companies, and more. Regulations have a technical component: being a lawyer is not enough. The regulations are also about environmental data and environmental risk assessments. I have been working on sustainability and sustainable finance for the last 20 years, and Systemic can help with everything related to new regulations and assist its clients that are looking for such specific support in this area. My goal is to have the best team available to help all our clients. We are focusing on those who really want to be part of the company so we can all grow together. Another important aspect is knowledge. Everyone who comes to work with us does at least one executive course a year, so they are able to keep up with the new information coming out.

A street scene pictured in Lagos, southern Portugal

Image: Ivars Andrups

The Banco de Portugal building in central Lisbon

SPEND WISE

The performance of the domestic economy in Portugal was heavily impacted by the measures adopted to limit the impact of COVID-19. After almost a decade years of regular growth, GDP in 2020 measured a drop of 7.6% as a consequence of the fall in private consumption combined with a drop in external demand, with a reduction in exports incoming tourist numbers.

That said, the progress achieved by the banking industry after the 2010-2014 Portuguese financial crisis allowed for quickened recovery following the height of COVID-19. The sector showed resiliency, both from a liquidity and solvency perspective, and supported the national economy as it entered recovery mode. In 2021, the banking system in Portugal consisted of 145 financial institutions, employing 1% of the country’s total workforce, including 60 banks, 82 agricultural credit banks, and three saving banks, with the five leading banks controlling 77% of total assets. Over the last decade, solvency and liquidity have been strongly reinforced. Non-performing loans (NPLs) have fallen by EUR36.1 billion since the peak registered in June 2016. On the other hand, banks profitability fell (RoE of 0.5%), moving close to 2016 levels. According to a report released by EBF, as far as the balance-sheet structure is concerned, on the asset side, the stock of

loans to customers increased by 2.1% YoY, led by the support measures implemented as a response to the pandemic crisis. Since its peak reached in June 2016, the NPL ratio has lowered from 17.9 to 4.9%. Customer deposits continued to grow, with an increase in savings and a remarkable reduced consumption, mainly as a consequence of the mobility restrictions imposed during the lockdowns. As became clear during the majority of interviews we conducted for this chapter, embracing digital transformation is a priority for Portuguese banks. Clients and individuals using internet banking increased remarkably from 38% in 2010, to 60% during the pandemic. As a consequence of COVID-19, card payments and contactless technology grew by 163% in volume and 271% in value.

The government has re-confirmed its commitment toward the creation of an efficient, sustainable, and inclusive economy. As part of the Portuguese National Recovery and Resilience Plan, at least 38% of expenditure should be directed to reforms, projects, and investments supporting both the digital transformation of the nation and its climate objectives. The additional investment expected to be made toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is estimated at EUR2.1 to EUR2.5 billion per year, equal to around 1.2% of GDP. ✖

BANKING

Banks provide a high level of specialization, flexible financial solutions, extensive experience, and tailormade solutions to clients’ needs to stand out in an increasingly competitive market.

THE FRENCH ENTITY AUCHAN created Oney more than three decades ago. The Portuguese branch was created 28 years ago, the first one created outside France. Portugal is the second-largest subsidiary within the group, both in terms of results and in terms employees, with 400 team members. Our branch has almost all banking activities. We offer all financial products, such as credit cards, personal credit, insurance and so on, and the possibility of buying and paying in instalments, which follows the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) trend. In Portugal, we have 1 million customers in a country that has 10 million inhabitants. One key differential factor was investing in digital channels from the beginning. And parallel to this, we were innovating with the now BNPL trend, which allows us to keep having new commerce partners and to grow in the Portuguese market. We have a different, unique vision of financial services and payment solutions: we reshape them to be more modern, responsible, and human. We consider ourselves to a partner in the transformation of commerce. With our thousands of retail partners, we give everyone the opportunity and power to improve their daily lives and consume better.

BFF BANKING GROUP’S core business focuses on credit management and the acquisition of trade receivables towards public entities—a niche service where BFF sets itself apart from the market due to its level of expertise and specialization in this segment, for which there is effectively no similar competition. We started operations in Portugal in 2014 in a freedom of services regime, and in 2018 we opened a branch office in Lisbon, to develop a market-tailored approach to our services and invest in local expertise and know-how by creating a fully dedicated local team. If we look back now to our decision to invest in the country and to develop of a dedicated local team, we would definitely conclude that there was market appetite for our specialized solutions, but also that the market was missing this level of expertise as well, and a tailor-made approach to client needs that would more easily address their specific treasury necessities. At this point, we can safely say that our brand and operational strategy are aligned to pursue the goal of further business growth in Portugal, and our flexibility and efficiency in providing financial services meet companies’ needs.

BEING A SMALL FINANCIAL INSTITUTION, we must offer a distinct value proposition to our clients. Operating within a highly regulated environment might be challenging, but there is still room for a niche approach. Ours is based on relationships and trusted advisors, using our size and focused approach in wealth management to our advantage. We target clients that value the fact that we are close to them, we understand them, and we are willing to adjust the product or service to meet their needs. We are a boutique bank with in-depth knowledge of markets, particularly the Portuguese one. We have been investing in creating a bespoke service delivered by talented qualified professionals. We also use technology for incremental improvements to boost our efficiency. In this context, being small may be an advantage: it is easier to make changes when you are agile. With a niche approach, we understand that we are not maximizing the efficiency of the solutions that we offer. This raises issues in terms of finding the right level of response to a client’s needs and, at the same time, efficiency. This is why innovation and rethinking the way we do things are heavily on our agenda today.

Dario Coffetti CEO, ONEY BANK PORTUGAL

Nuno Francisco HEAD OF PORTUGAL, BFF BANKING GROUP

Francisco Oliveira Fernandes CEO, BANCO CARREGOSA

An ATM pictured in Lagos

Image: Wirestock Creators

FINS IN THE WATER

While fintechs are an established feature in the commercial firmament, their expanding scope exposes a staffing shortfall that needs addressing.

THE CROSS-POLLINATION OF FINANCE, ICT, AND TELCOS is unleashing new opportunities worldwide, championing the unbanked, small business, promoting insurance coverage, and boosting the formal economy. All while giving traditional finance a run for its money. In short, today’s fintech arena, while perhaps characterized by a more ethical mindset, is undeniably competitive.

A NURTURING ENVIRONMENT

Portugal is on its way to becoming a European fintech hub, as confirmed in a 2021 study by Portugal Fintech. The value-added services that fintechs offer finance companies have a regulatory framework that fuels growth and diversification. The demand for Regtech, enabling digital navigation of the regulatory landscape to mitigate risk in setting up a business is pronounced. Elsewhere, the central bank, Banco de Portugal, last year undertook the regulation of cryptocurrencies, in the same breath handing operating licenses to two cryptocurrency exchanges. The same year, financial regulators staged the third edition of Portugal FinLab. This communication channel between entrepreneurs, emerging firms, and regulators again guides fintechs through the legal and regulatory environment. Of the study’s respondents, 32% reported improved access to policymakers, while 44% felt that regulation was commercially beneficial.

SO WHAT ARE THEY?

Portugal Fintech notes that among the top 30 Portuguese fintechs, 27% operate in payment and money transfers, while 17% cater to lending and credit, and 17% are insurtech start-ups. Of those

30 leading players, 82% are headquartered in Portugal, with 13% based elsewhere in Europe. A prime example being Elucidate, a financial crime risk quantification platform calling Berlin home. 6% are headquartered in the US, like Feedzai and the first federally chartered crypto bank in the US, Anchorage Digital.

SADDLING THE UNICORN

Given their innovative propensity, start-ups can occasionally experience stratospheric growth: Monday’s idea becomes indispensable by Wednesday. Some more than others. And like the mythical beast they are named after, the commercial unicorn is a rare breed. A start-up pony is worth USD1 billion and upward. In 2021, Portugal stabled its first unicorn in the shape of Feedzai, which serves banks and other financial services firms AI tools to identify and mitigate fraud. Cybersecurity is a key consideration in the increasingly digitalized economy, and among those same top 30 Portuguese fintechs, cybersecurity and regtech were the vertical attracting the most funding in 2021, at 60% of investments. Blockchain and cryptocurrency, and insurtech followed on 27% and 8%, respectively.

CREATIVE JUICES

The cutting-edge services Portugal’s fintechs rustle up include “must-haves” like proprietary facial recognition technology. Or else, and kind of showing how the magic is done, firms like Anachron Tech offer ready-made application programming interfaces (APIs) to financial firms keen to develop in-house fintech products. Those might include cost-saving robo-advisors and financial planning tools.

SWEDISH CONNECTION

In May 2022, a Swedish fintech brought Portugal a step closer to its ambition of becoming a Fintech hub. Klarna announced plans to establish a product development center in Lisbon, potentially creating 500 new professional jobs. Focused on retail banking and global payments and procurement, the company, valued at EUR40 billion, sees Portugal as another international springboard, already operating such centers in Stockholm, Giessen, Madrid, Milan, Mannheim, and Toronto. Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas sees Lisbon’s future as no less than the “innovation capital of Europe.”

Yet, the mayor’s bullish sentiment points to a common problem highlighted by Portuguese fintechs in the 2021 study, namely the shortage of qualified talent. Paradoxically, local innovators have created an environment of great appeal to multinationals. Yet, those firms on arrival require large workforces, offering what is perceived as a more stable career. A substantial 54% of respondents foresaw the cost of talent rising more than 1.5 times as a result.

Daniel Araújo is the CEO of tech giant Asseco PST, which has a 26% market share in Portugal and is also active in Lusophone countries, with a 76% share in Angola and 37% in Mozambique. In a TBY interview, Araújo, too, comments on this issue. “We have to heavily invest in human resources, [because of] global providers setting up offices in Portugal, such as Google and Amazon, or large French banks like BNP Paribas. All these global competitors create substantial pressure in terms of human resources.” Meanwhile, Asseco PST has the scale to establish its own academy, also active in Angola and Mozambique, to nurture future talent for itself, but ultimately also for the sector.

As Portugal’s fintechs prove indispensible to tomorrow’s financial landscape, a conducive regulatory framework has crystalized and their field of operation widened. The government has recently been working on legislation for Technology Free Zones to foster local innovation and the incentivized risk-taking made possible in industrial counterparts. Such initiatives bode well for Portugal’s pedigree as a hub of invention. ✖

BIO

Daniel Araújo has been CEO of Asseco PST since 2013, when it was still called EXICTOS. Born in Luanda, Angola, he holds a bachelor's in computer and telecommunications engineering, a master's in network and telecommunications engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from IESE Business School at the University of Navarra.

Daniel Araújo CEO, ASSECO PST

How do you support the financial sector in rethinking the business paradigm and applying digitalization to their operations?

COVID-19 served as an incentive to accelerate current developments, and it will certainly proceed in this direction. We will continue to have a deeper role in this particular sector, and we want to do our best by supporting banks move forward through advanced digital technologies. To stay relevant, banks need to establish a radical transformation. We will continue what we have been doing for the past 30 years, but focusing on speeding up procedures.

How would you assess the level of digitalization of companies in Portugal specifically?

As far as the concept of digitalization is concerned, the Portuguese economy has a long way to go. Examining banks in general, the sector should focus on redesigning processes having digitalization in mind. That might make sense for both financial institutions and the final customer: a renewal is mandatory.

In 2021, Asseco PST acquired a majority stake of Finantech. What is the importance of this acquisition? Fortunately, we had a strong year. During the pandemic, we acquired Finantech, which has been operating for the past 25 years and is the market leader in Portugal providing tech solutions for capital markets. For us, as a core banking software developer and producer, there was a natural fit and great synergy between these two companies, which is why we felt a union would be beneficial. While we are present in Portugal, we have a strong presence in Portuguese-speaking African markets, and some are leaning to capital markets. Finantech will serve as a platform to leverage our expertise in these markets.

How do you establish your leadership within the sector in such a small country?

Competition is high. Portugal is relatively a small country, but it has, I believe, seven unicorns, while Spain has one. We can see different global providers setting up offices in Portugal, and all these global competitors place a substantial pressure in terms of human resources. It is important, as a country, to graduate more people in the IT sector by creating ways to encourage them to switch careers into this area. We must continue to do what we have been doing successfully in the past. ✖

INSURANCE

COSTA DUARTE IS A family-owned business, already in its fourth generation, and the core business is exclusive focused in insurance and risk management related matters, providing services as insurance consultants and brokers. Costa Duarte is an independent broker, 100% Portuguese, and it is one of the market leaders in the insurance sector. Since 1921, Costa Duarte has been acquiring expertise and capabilities in several areas of insurance-related services mainly but not limited to property and casualty risks, employee benefits, credit and bonds, motor fleet management, affinities, cyber risks, public procurement and claims management for Portuguese and multinational corporate clients. Costa Duarte has been servicing its clients around the world through strategic alliances with international partners. Our clients require and expect the highest level of service and advice, and this remains the main focus and priority of the team. We are committed to providing a service of excellence to our clients, partners, and stakeholders to help the sector continue to evolve.

OUR MISSION IS TO better respond to the increasingly sophisticated needs of our national and international clients, regarding risk management and the implementation of insurance solutions. We have strengthened our global service’s offering and have acquired an increased negotiation capacity, shaped by our foundations: the 2019 merger between Mediator and Credite-EGS, two well recognized insurance brokers; and belonging to a multinational group as solid as the Verspieren Group, created in 1880, and which includes 21 companies in France dedicated to insurance brokerage and consultancy. We are committed to the digital way of doing business and to leverage the brand on the Portuguese market: upskilling and reskilling are fundamental to better prepare our teams for the digital transformation, the changing future and the always evolving customers. In the short term, we are focused on creating a new sales team. In the medium term, we are developing a new organizational culture to prepare our organization for the future.

GENERALI SEGUROS, as part of Generali Group, is currently the second-largest player in the property and casualty insurance market in Portugal, with a market share of 18.81%, offering a wide range of policies addressed to individuals and businesses, sold mainly under the historic brand Tranquilidade. Founded over 150 years ago, and adopting a multi-channel distribution strategy, which can count on the largest network of agents in Portugal (representing approximately 70% of the company’s total premiums), brokers, and a direct channel. Innovation and digitalization are in Tranquilidade’s DNA. We quickly responded to the pandemic and the lockdown, “reinventing” our business and adapting to the challenging environment such as offering telemedicine and remote physiotherapy to our customers, having first-mover advantage in offering COVID-19 specific protection to SMEs, and fully digitalizing our communication channels (chatbot, WhatsApp, mobile app), including claims settlement, all this whilst integrating three insurance companies.

THE AGEAS PORTUGAL GROUP’S ecosystem is strong and has numerous service and product offerings with a presence in a wide range of distribution channels. Grupo Ageas Portugal had a market share of 16.4%, in 2021, reinforced when compared to 2020, with premium growth above the market. Innovation is a key determinant of business success and is in the DNA of the Ageas Portugal Group and its brands, as exemplified by the creation of the first private network of health providers with Médis, or the first insurer to market car insurance by phone and internet through Seguro Directo. The insurance industry has a great deal of space for innovation, which is challenging. We have numerous projects such as, for example, the Impact School, an entrepreneurship and social innovation program that the Fundação Ageas has in partnership with Impact Hub Lisbon. I would also highlight the Ageas Innovation Hackathon initiative in partnership with Nova SBE that challenges university students to find innovative solutions to real cases related to the world of insurance.

Martim Costa Duarte EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER, COSTA DUARTE

Rogério Dias MANAGING DIRECTOR, VERSPIEREN

Pedro Carvalho CEO, TRANQUILIDADE GENERALI

Steven Braekeveldt CEO, AGEAS PORTUGAL

The pandemic has only reinforced the importance of insurance and the need for the sector to develop innovative solutions that will best serve the interests of society.

ECONOMY BY SECTOR

MANUFACTURING SNAPSHOT

TOP-3 GROWING

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

Paper and paper products

Chemicals and chemical products

Non-metallic mineral products

TOP-3 DECLINING

MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES

Rubber and plastic products

Motor vehicles, trailers, and semi trailers

Electrical equipment

A Volkswagen assembly line pictured in Palmela

Image: David Jancik

THE FULL SPECTRUM

Portugal offers a wide spectrum of opportunities for investors interested in expanding their business. Despite some slowdowns generated by the pandemic, the most prominent sectors defining Portuguese agro-industry span from automotive to wine, from oulds to cork, and from aeronautical to maritime and fisheries.

With Portugal located on the meeting point of major maritime international routs, the naval construction and repair sector offers competitive advantages. And in the air, the government has highlighted the aeronautics industry as a priority area to develop and improve for the coming decades. Indeed, Portugal offers an ideal platform with an extensive range of skills within the aeronautic industry, both for civil and defense applications; more than 140 innovative companies operate in the sector, which generate 7,000 jobs and a sales turnover exceeding EUR680 million. From electric switchboards or even structural components for Airbus to helicopter tails and also components for fighters, an impressive range of components are assembled and produced in Portugal.

The country hosts one of the most competitive European textile industries. What makes the local textile industry unique is the concentration of all the key players of the sector in the northern

region, around Braga and Porto. Manufacturers from these areas are known for offering products of high added value and technology.

As far as the automotive industry is concerned, the main players and manufacturers are Volkswagen AutoEuropa, PSA, Mitsubishi, ISUZU, and Salvador Caetano. We’d also be remiss not to mention CaetanoBus, belonging to Salvador Caetano group company, which today is considered the world leader in manufacturing buses and shuttles for airports.

Internationally, Portugal has made itself a global leader in the production of plastic molds, with 80% of total sales generated by overseas clients.

Agro-industry is also promising: Portugal is ranked fifth in Europe as a wine-producing nation. Vineyards spread throughout the entire country, covering a total area of approximately 258,000 acres. The wine industry accounts for 50% of the total agricultural turnover, underpinned by 13,000 companies and employing 28% of the agricultural workforce. In terms of market share, Portugal is a leading player in the pulp and paper industry. The reputation of the country is also associated with cork production. With an average annual output of 157,000 tons, Portugal holds 60% of global exports, with an annual turnover of EUR850 million. ✖

MARKET leader

Given the many upcoming opportunities in Portugal across various sectors, ABB Portugal is optimistic about growth in the coming years.

Mário Do Ó COUNTRY MANAGING DIRECTOR & MOTION DIVISION LEADER, ABB PORTUGAL

How would you assess the performance of ABB in Portugal during the pandemic?

As far as ABB’s performance in Portugal is concerned, in 2021 ABB Portugal grew more than 20% YoY in orders, despite COVID-19 and the crisis of the semiconductors and raw materials that resulted in a shortage of products. 2021 was a great year for ABB Portugal across all divisions of the company, not only in terms of orders but also in profitability. Therefore, we want to continue to grow in 2022 as well, even though there are still some challenges.

between Lisbon and Cacilhas, Seixal, and Montijo, where they will transport passengers across the river. ABB estimates that replacing the 10 ferries operating on diesel power to an all-electric integrated power solution is expected to cut about 6,500 tons in CO2 emissions every year. This is equivalent to the annual carbon dioxide emissions generated by around 1,400 passenger cars annually.

How do you shape your competitive advantages and remain one step ahead of the increasing competition in the local market?

BIO

Mário Do Ó holds a degree in electromechanical engineering from Universidade da Beira Interior (UBI), a marketing and business administration post-graduation from SDA Bocconi School of Management, and an MBA from ISCTE Executive Education. He joined ABB in 2004 as a salesman in the industrial systems department. In 2007, he managed the department of drives, motors, and controls, after which in 2012, he began an international career with ABB in Brazil and Spain and with responsibilities in the southern European region in motion division. In 2019, he was appointed Country Managing Director and Motion Division Leader for ABB Portugal.

What are the main growth opportunities in the Portuguese economy? Portugal has great market potential for us to expand and consolidate our operations in many sectors. Portugal expects to see considerable investments in the coming months, especially with the funds that will come from the EU as part of its Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). We have established a presence within key sectors of the national economy, from infrastructure to energy and water and in light, heavy, and process industries. In the last few years, we also had a focus on electrical mobility, for example ABB Ability for electric vehicle charging solutions. This has provided us with new growth opportunities in the market. We had a solid year for EV charging, confirming our leadership in this type of solutions. Electrical mobility is driving many opportunities, and proof of that was the order that ABB received from Astilleros Gondán to supply all electrical power solutions for 10 ferries. The ferries will be operated by Transtejo—a public Portuguese company working in transportation—and will replace its existing diesel ferries in the fleet. The 40m-long barges will all be used on the three main routes

We will continue to invest in Portugal, ensuring that we will grow even further in a way that provides superior value to our customers. ABB will make an investment in Portugal of more than EUR0.6 million in Coimbra to establish a new workshop with a digitalization and training center. With this new investment, we will be able to provide our clients with a unique experience, and we plan to have it ready by May 2022. This represents our commitment to our clients, reinforcing ABB’s leading position in Portugal. We are focused on creating superior customer value. Digital is embedded in our DNA, and maintaining and improving our innovation, technology, and digital leadership is a strategic priority across all our divisions.

What is your main objective in Portugal?

We believe that people are the main and most important part of the success of a business. Accordingly, we promote a culture of diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunities. Because of that, we want to continue to invest in people and in the business to reinforce our presence in Portugal. In terms of our financial objectives, the strategy is clear: continue to grow in revenues and profitability. ✖

DISTRIBUTORS

Wine and beverage distributors are focused on expanding their coverage and gaining market share, intensifying their digitalization efforts, and meeting customers’ needs in the market.

in bringing knowledge and education to the trade and consumer by developing a 360-approach based on the whisky tasting profiles. As leaders, we create trends. The entire company is driven by innovation through in-house processes development and education.

JB We were the ones to introduce Red Bull, Monster Energy, Cutty Sark, and Capri Sun in Portugal. Those companies are multinationals, and when we work with these companies we also acquire their know-how. They usually have money to invest and develop their brands and markets, and we learn with them. We also open new points of sale that allow the development and introduction of our main brands. However, the greatest achievement is becoming the distributor of brands there are leaders in their categories and creating the conditions to keep them leaders for next years.

How did the pandemic affect the company’s operations?

How has the company evolved since its establishment?

JOÃO MORÃO PrimeDrinks is the number one wines and spirits distributor in Portugal selling around EUR60 million. It is a cohesive, family-owned company with three shareholders (Esporão, Aveleda, and William Grant & Sons). It also represents 10 third-party brand owners in wine— Ermelinda Freitas, Herdade dos Grous, Carm, Fiuza, Nicolau de Almeida, and Luis Pato—and spirits (Edrington, Stoli Group, Amber Beverage Group, and Lucas Bols). It has a strong portfolio of leading brands such as Monte Velho, Casal Garcia, Esporão, Aveleda, Hendrick’s, Grant’s, The Balvenie, and Glenfiddich. Currently, sustainability has become a big differentiator for companies across all industries, and bio and natural wines are gaining traction among younger and informed consumers, while categories continue to blur such as rosé, sangria, wine with flavors, and so on. Alcohol education is fundamental: drink less but better.

JOÃO BRAGA Viborel is a successful company and has always earned profits since year one, even during the pandemic.

COVID-19 interrupted 10 years of growth for the company, but we are currently almost at our 2019 levels. We have partners that have been with us since the beginning, or almost the beginning. Those represent 80% of our business. The loyalty of our clients is part of our success also. Our core business is focused on still and sparkling wines. Our suppliers, the wineries, all have their export departments, so our knowledge and expertise remains local markets and distribution. We have never sought to go abroad, because we would need teams that would need to have that expertise and create a new department for that purpose. We are doing well, one of the best in the local markets.

What achievements are you particularly proud of?

JM We are bringing innovation to Portugal by launching Monte Velho Rosé in 2021 and Monte Velho Bio in 2022. We are doing brand development and expansion into new wine regions: Esporão launching Bico Amarelo from the Vinhos Verdes region in 2021 and Aveleda launching Mandriola (red & white wines) from the Lisbon region in 2022. In whisky, we are focused

JM The pandemic brought uncertainty and doubt in terms of on-trade constraints, raising payments, and cash flow issues. It was critical to manage the financial capacities, address stress tests to maintain the company’s structure, and secure cash flow to address business issues. We also developed a digital channel and were the first distributor to implement a digital dedicated business unit. This was followed by a similar approach to the luxury and prestige business area with a fine wine and spirits division to address this big opportunity, particularly for the on-trade reopening.

What are the key advantages that make you a leading player in the local market?

JB The most important advantage is being an independent distributor. We treat everyone and supplier, big or small, the same way. They all have the same opportunities. Viborel is the only distributor with a mixed style of succeeding in the market. We can fill the market more quickly than others, because we have our sales force, and we can quickly respond to the needs of the market and transfer to the other Portuguese markets, the experience that we have in Lisbon. This is the big difference we have from all the other big distributors of beverages in Portugal. We are an independent, flexible, and agile company. ✖

João Morão DIRECTOR, PRIMEDRINKS

João Braga GENERAL DIRECTOR, VIBOREL

PULP FACT

Portugal’s paper industry is an export stalwart, and, in line with the country’s commitment to a circular economy, it also feeds the energy grid that powers it.

DESPITE THE GLOBAL RUSH TOWARD digitalization, paper, in its myriad forms, is no closer to imminent demise than the internal combustion engine with the rise of electric vehicles. The emotive image of a tree being felled and the environmental consequence of deforestation are not without basis. Yet, responsible paper producers, notably Portugal, are keen to reassure skeptics that the industry is sustainable.

GROWTH INCENTIVES

The Portuguese pulp, paper, and card industry is strategic for the broader economic model. Portugal’s product quality is globally recognized for the high fiber quality of eucalyptus globulus, native to the country, and of which it has the largest volume of in Europe. The sector enjoys tax breaks, state subsidies and otherwise incentivized eucalyptus planting. Data reveals that in 2017 alone, the government spent EUR18 million to boost plantation productivity. Prominent sector player Navigator—an integrated producer of forest, pulp, paper, tissue, sustainable packaging solutions, and bioenergy, of which more later—makes subsidized electricity sales to the national grid, mostly through burning biomass.

Portugal’s forestry sector is a key part of government initiatives to realize the EU principle of a circular economy. Its paper industry today operates with 70% green energy, exceeding the European average of 54% thanks to reusable forest biomass. Navigator is a key player here too, with 2.5TWh of renewable energy, aside from an annual production capacity of 1.6 million tons of paper, 1.6 million tons of pulp, and 130,000 tons of tissue. Last year, 66% (up 6ppt YoY) of the Navigator’s energy generation at its four facilities derived from biomass, that is, around 35% of the Portugal’s total. And

while Portugal shoots for carbon neutrality by 2050, Navigator targets 2035, as the first Portuguese company, and among the first in the world, to do so, allocating related capex of EUR154 million. The European Investment Bank (EIB) recently extended the company EUR27.5 million to replace a gas-fired generator with a biomass boiler at its pulp mill in Figueira da Foz in pursuit of that net zero target.

A VOICE IN THE FOREST…

Portugal’s forests cover roughly 40% of the country, and the local pulp and paper industry is a key agent of their sustainability. Each year, tree nurseries raise around 13 million plants, including commercially non-viable species solely for ecological preservation. The industry’s primary public voice, the Portuguese Paper Industry Association (CELPA) formed in 1993 when the Association of Cellulose Pulp Producing Companies (ACEL) and Portuguese Association of Paper and Cardboard Producers (FAPEL) merged. CELPA highlights the fact that over the past century, the country’s woodlands have expanded by almost 80%, amounting to over 28,000 football pitches per year.

…AND ITS MEMBERS

CELPA’s 10 member companies are the preeminent paper pulp, paper, and cardboard producers in Portugal and manage around 200,000ha of forests, amounting to 2.2% of the country. Of that, 165,000ha are forested (152,000 of eucalyptus, 7,000 of cork oak, and 6,000 of cluster pine), accounting for 5.2% of Portugal’s forest. The companies also account for 100% of national output for paper pulp and 90% of national paper and cardboard production and

transform roughly 6 million cbm of wood per annum into paper. Member companies also directly employ around 4,000 people but account for an estimated 90,000 direct, indirect, and induced jobs in the Portuguese economy.

TALES FROM THE NURSERY

With a 2021 turnover of EUR1.59 billion, paper giant Navigator produces pulp and paper from forests that are planted for the purpose. Annually, the company’s nurseries raise over 12 million trees and shrubs of 135 species, making them Europe’s biggest. The forests under the company’s wing in Portugal make for a carbon stock, excluding carbon in the soil, equivalent to 6.1 million tons of CO2.

MONEY DOES GROW ON TREES

Portugal is Europe’s preeminent producer of uncoated fine papers,

accounting for around 60% of Europe’s worldwide office paper exports. The pulp and paper industry accounts for around 6% of total exports of goods. The numbers are impressive, as Portugal’s Exports of paper and paperboard, articles of pulp, paper and board stood at USD2.37 billion in 2021, according to COMTRADE. Exemplar Navigator is Portugal’s third-largest exporter, alone accounting for around 1% of GDP and 2.4% of the country’s total goods exports. In 2021, over 90% of its products shipped to around 130 countries. Its economic significance also extends to creating over 30,000 direct, indirect, and generated jobs.

The paper industry is clearly a big earner. More importantly as its representatives take pains to explain, commercialized forestry is not a here-today-gone-tomorrow venture. Rather, responsibly managed forests and nurseries are part of a circular economy that they fuel, financially and literally. ✖

Ivo Vieira CEO, LUSOSPACE

AEROSPACE

The aerospace sector in Portugal has become extremely competitive, with companies racing to develop new innovative technologies and projects that will require not only creativity and talent but also patience.

Can you elaborate more on the company?

Nuno Avila CEO, DEIMOS ENGENHARIA SA

IVO VIEIRA LusoSpace has been working in the space sector since 2002 and celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2022. We have been working mainly in hardware and developing products and systems for the space sector. The main products are for navigation, some are for optical communication, and we have also been developing augmented reality technology to improve the productivity of our systems. At present, we are working to deploy a satellite constellation. We operate in a highly niche segment: one of our products, for example, is the magnetometer, which no other company in Portugal sells. The optical communications terminal that we developed is set to launch in 2023 and will enable communication between Leo satellites and ground stations. Then, there are the augmented reality systems that we have been developing to improve human productivity. This has great significance for the industry itself in that we can assemble and test a satellite much faster and more reliably. The third project we are particularly proud of is the laser for Laser Interfermoter Space Antenna (LISA): LISA will be the largest manmade structure of its kind ever made—a giant laser observatory in space to probe the dark side of the universe.

NUNO AVILA Today, with over 500 professionals in Spain, Portugal, the UK, Romania, and Italy, Deimos is one the most prominent space companies in Europe, covering all aspects from space engineering, satellite production (Deimos 1, Deimos2, Neptuno) and operation, but also a business critical information systems provider for transportation, energy production and automation. What had started as a purely engineering company doing studies in engineering for third parties 20 years ago has quickly evolved into a company that can cover the entire value chain. The company achieved a turnover of about EUR50 million in 2021. In Portugal, Deimos Engenharia’s core business is space. We have been one of the most successful suppliers of the European Space Agency (ESA) since Portugal joined ESA in 2000. Actually, Deimos is part of the history of the Space sector in Portugal. Back in 2000, there was barely any company work-

ing in space—it was a totally new sector. In 20 years, we proudly grew in Portugal a strong industrial capacity up to the level of space system integration, developed unique technologies, nurtured a huge network of science and technology partners and co-founded Portuguese aerospace and defense associations (AED and former ProEspaço).

What is the long-term vision of the company?

IV We will continue to establish partnerships with local and international institutions. We also partner with universities for specific tasks for projects, as well as for PhDs or other academic work. As an example, we have developed some augmented reality hardware that will replace your smartphones in the future, and we have been working with universities that have state-of-the-art microtechnology that can be of benefit in hardware development. We have three main ambitions: to be a satellite integrator, a leader in optical and quantum communications, to spin off the augmented reality technology to other sectors beyond space. 2022 looks promising, as we are bidding with other companies for our part of Portugal’s Recovery Plan. If we are successful in this, we will be able to develop and deploy a constellation of satellites.

What are the main challenges characterizing the industry you are working in?

NA This is really a niche market where having an extremely skilled and stable team is a key asset. And that makes attracting and retaining top human capital the main challenge of Deimos. The market now is booming, people are needed, and Deimos is on the front line to welcome the best professional in space, but also in ICT and software. Our team in Lisbon is now 75 people. Overall, what we are seeing globally is a lack of people educated in STEM subjects in order to keep up with the requirements and pace of technology businesses worldwide. There’s a vibrant tech environment in Portugal right now, which is backed by a strong institutional vision and governmental push in making Portugal a reference in technology services, space being one of them. ✖

The Repsol industry complex pictured along the Tagus River in Setubal

Image: Michele Rinaldi

Telecoms & IT DIGITAL GROWTH

The ICT sector is one of the most innovative and dynamic of the Portuguese economy, representing nearly 10% of GDP and totaling almost USB20 nillion in turnover annually, according to the National Portuguese ICT Cluster.

The ICT cluster—underpinned by young and highly qualified human capital—employes more than 80,000 individuals. It has over 10 years of world-class research carried out in partnership with Portuguese universities under its belt and has had a strong impact on the local industry. The profile of ICT players has radically evolved from traditional ICT providers to highly specified and innovative start-ups. According to the EU Digital Economy and Society Index 2020, Portugal ranks 19th out of 27 EU member states, and according to the United Nations Conference of Trade and Development, internationally, Portugal ranks 32nd among 158 countries in the Readiness for Frontier Technologies Index.

As confirmed by the majority of the interviewees TBY met in Portugal, the recent pandemic crisis has had a relevant impact on the use of internet services as isolation restrictions forced both the private and the business community to increase reliance on online services and products. Many players are capitalizing on the new scenarios and possibilities offered by the increasing digi-

talization of the community.

Over the years, Portugal’s ICT broadband network and infrastructure has been growing and expanding, underpinned by public investment and by the fierce competition emerging among private operators. In June 2021, Prime Minister António Costa celebrated the launch of the first high-speed submarine fiber-optic cable that, from Sines, will link Europe to Fortaleza, in Brazil, an important piece of infrastructure for the digital connection and data transmission between the two continents and a fundamental project that will foster the growth of the digital economy in Portugal.

Increased connectivity and growing digitalization imply higher vulnerability to cyber attacks. As a consequence of the pandemic, cyber attacks in Portugal rose by 79%. Investing in securing digital networks and fostering digital skills and youth education have become a priority for the national government. According to the Global Cybersecurity Index, Portugal ranks 14th overall and eighth in the EU.

The government is also currently implementing Advanced Computing Portugal 2030, which aims to promote international collaborations among industry and academia, benefitting scientific computing knowledge applied to all sectors of the national economy, from health to energy and from transport and mobility to climate action. ✖

A telecoms mast pictured in Guarda, one of the highest spots in continental Portugal

a helping HAND

Carla Marques GENERAL MANAGER, INTELCIA

Intelcia started operating in Portugal in 2018. How have the operations of the company evolved?

I was the first employee of Intelcia in Portugal, challenged to start it from scratch, taking care of all legal aspects, finding the right space, managing the logistics and construction work, and finally recruiting the team to set up the company. The goals behind establishing Intelcia in Portugal were to be the main supplier of Altice, a hub in terms of multilingual skills for international projects, and the most reliable supplier for the local market. We work with international players, and we are the preferred supplier of Altice, managing its stores, the customer experience, technical back office, retention telemarketing, and all the services for the entire customer journey of its clients. In just three years, we have established a team of 7,000 people, and we currently have one director for the Portuguese market and one director for the international market. The business is divided into 5,000 people focused on the Portuguese market and 2,000 with multilingual skills, where we provide services in Spanish, English, Dutch, French, and German.

What is the key factor underpinning the positive performance of Intelcia in Portugal?

As CEO, my main concern is not to lose the human touch while growing more successful. Intelcia is a big company, with EUR120 million in revenue forecast for 2022. In Portugal, we have had rapid growth in the last two years, and our

team drives our business with the support of technology, and we only achieve that because we have excellent people who are involved, engaged, and committed. It is fundamental that they believe in our strategy and we have some measures in place to ensure that, since 80% of our product comprises a human component and the remaining 20% technology. Our values are simple: we dream, we care, and we do. We dream with boldness and ambition for a better tomorrow; we care for our people, as it lies at the heart of our management; and we do, working hard to provide the best service to our clients. We are a human focused company, which is why we involve engaged people to be part of the company to provide the best service to our clients as we believe that this is how we differentiate ourselves in the market. The strategy to retain our talent is to provide a great environment for our employees, and follow closely the changes. We have implemented weekly engagement and satisfaction reports, and we analyze them with each business director to prevent turnover. To better understand the levels of engagement of our talent and be able to retain them, we have implemented a program called Intelcia Journey where we define the journey of each employee and make sure to ask them during every touchpoint their opinion of the company and measure the NPS. We measure that every six months per project and share the result with the rest of the teams so that we can take actions and share best practices.

How do you embrace the concept of technology without losing your human touch?

We combine and merge the two concepts of people with innovation. Our challenge for 2022 is to implement E-voluciona in the Portuguese market. This is our brand that supports clients to implement a successful customer journey combining people and technology to provide an efficient and delightful customer experience. If we want to be ready for the future, we need to embrace technology with a human touch, and we will continue our implementation of analytics tolls and processes, RPA, and automation in the company. For our clients, there is also customer experience consultancy, namely technology to facilitate the power of the human touch of the company. ✖

BIO

Carla Marques has over 20 years of experience in the contact center and customer relationship management areas, with responsibility in business development in Portugal, both for national and international markets. She is part of Intelcia Group, present in 16 countries with currently 85 sites, in Europe, Africa, and the US, specialized in customer relationship management, IT solutions, business process outsourcing, and digital services.

Intelcia has a team of 7,000 people providing the full spectrum of back-end services to multinational clients in several languages.

A NEW world

SoftFinança focuses on the complementarity of services to financial customers, with particular emphasis on relationship channels and establishing lasting relationships with all the main banks operating in Portugal.

Jorge Carvalho PRESIDENT, SOFTFINANÇA

Can you give us a brief summary on the evolution of SoftFinança?

I founded the company 31 years ago in 1990. We perceived an opportunity for a company to be focused on developing software for the financial market. Fintechs did not exist when we started, but today we see what they are all about. There were only two companies in Portugal at that time focused solely on the financial market, and we were one of them. We started as a project company developing projects for the financial market, namely banks and insurance companies, covering solutions from the mainframe to the branch. We’ve been doing this for many years, so we’ve acquired the knowledge and skills to make the shift that we made some seven, eight years ago to being a product driven company. With the majority of the projects we have done at SoftFinança, we realized there was a middle ground between the institution and the client. That wasn’t a strategy as such, just something that happened a couple of times, and from then on, we capitalized on that specific know-how. Those were and are the channels of the bank or institution. This kind of relationship between the institution and the client is even more relevant today. Key factors in this business are user experience, convenience, and ubiquity.

BIO

With a background in civil engineering, Jorge Carvalho began his career as a systems engineer at NCR Portugal in 1985. In 1987, at Olivetti Portuguesa, he was part of the factory team that developed the software for the ATM Olivetti 6400 that would later equip the Multibanco network in Portugal. He moved into commercial management positions for the financial sector at NCR Portugal and RIMA. As an independent consultant, he was responsible for the software development of the Ford Loyalty Program at European level. He founded SoftFinança, SA. in 1990. He has diversified SoftFinança’s business both industry and market wise, while remaining focused on a lifelong commitment and knowledge of financial institutions IT needs and evolution.

Predictions are that around 80% of physical banks could well disappear by 2030. Considering this premise, what is the impact of digitalization on local financial institutions? That vision would be the trend and I also agree with it. Things are moving more in that direction daily. That’s the reason why the relationship between the institutions and clients is so important. We are specialists in self-service solutions at SoftFinança. To simplify, let’s say that we have fewer bank notes in our wallet, even though there are still some ATMs in operation. We are constantly heading toward a paperless world. We have seen many changes with the relationship dynamics between customers and the banking industry with customers coming in and out of their branches. One example is having

ATMs outside the financial institutions. Even though it takes the customer out of the branch, it speeds up the transaction process, provides convenience and is less expensive. Then, all of a sudden, clients were pushed out of the branch and started to do other things like online banking from their home computer. Again, that took clients out of the branch, so banks didn’t have them on their premises and were struggling to get them back. Since they couldn’t speak with the clients, how could they sell their products? This is the cycle of an app, as the relationship between institutions and clients is a delicate balance. When we look into the evolution of the number of bank branches per inhabitant in Madrid, for example, we see branches from the same institution on both sides of the street in close proximity. The same phenomenon exists in Portugal. The ongoing challenge is to establish a digital connection with your customer. I have no doubt that physical banks will tend to disappear, and banks for day-today retail banking lean more toward digital options for cost-effectiveness.

What are your main targets for 2022-2023?

We are focused on selling abroad, but we are not looking to open offices here and there. We believe that one of the keys to success is having good local partners because there is a culture and a local network that you can’t ensure yourself in another country. You share what you should share, build trust through relationships, and reap the returns on that. We opened in Senegal because we thought it was the best path, and the objective is to broaden our client base there and sell abroad. We are selling increasingly in Portugal even though the market is not particularly elastic. In 2022, we expect to significantly increase our international revenue. ✖

“We are specialists in self-service solutions at SoftFinança.”

A sign for Web Summit, Europe’s biggest tech conference, pictured in 2018

BRING UP THE FIREWALL

With the publication in April 2020 of the National Cybersecurity Framework, Portugal is taking a step forward to ensure that its public and private entities have in place international standards for a risk-based approach to tackling cyber threats.

PORTUGAL HAS TAKEN AN IMPORTANT STEP forward in improving its cyberattack response practices with the publication of the National Cybersecurity Framework. In April 2020, just as the pandemic lockdowns began, the Portuguese National Cybersecurity Centre published this framework based on international standards to provide a comprehensive approach to responding to the increasingly common cyberattacks against European governments.

Portugal is also a victim of this increase in cyber attacks. One of the many effects of COVID-19 was the increase in cyber threats to businesses and governments. To get an idea of how the need for cybersecurity has increased with the spread of the virus, Portugal saw a 26% increase in cyberattacks between 2021 and 2020 in the number of incidents compared to 2020, according to the National Cybersecurity Center.

“Everyone is now on the internet, including children and all employees working from home and using the internet to work in every country. Over the last 18 months, we have been witnessing an increasing number of cyberattacks on big companies in Portugal and Europe,” said Bruno Castro, CEO at VisionWare. Founded in 2005, VisionWare is a Portuguese company with 80 employees that provides expertise to company employees to improve their ability to react against cyber threats in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa.

“In Portugal, we need to have cybersecurity defense. In the last year, most likely because of COVID-19, everything changed in the world with a “big bang” in technology and information,” Castro added. Moving in this direction is part of the objectives of the National Cybersecurity Framework, a 166-page document, so that decision-makers and IT departments in Portugal can improve their prevention and response policies in order to better protect the interests

of their stakeholders.

Specifically, the National Cybersecurity Framework seeks to provide a comprehensive approach to security awareness for public and private organizations. To achieve this, it establishes a set of processes and procedures that provide a common language to expand best practices in five areas that produce a cyber threat: identify, protect, detect, respond, and recover.

The application of the measures is a voluntary attempt to make these issues a higher priority. These five areas work in a coordinated manner so that from the first moment there is a potential threat, the organization knows what it faces, how it must protect itself, how to respond to it and how it can recover from the damage potentially caused.

For example, the section focused on identification sets out a series of guidelines to be performed in terms of risk assessment in which you need to understand what hazards may be posed to your assets and employees. After a proper review, organizations can then move on to the protection phase, where you decide how you are going to deal with the threat. This part also includes training and awareness actions before the problem occurs.

In terms of awareness training, the document, funded by the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility, aims to ensure that all users are informed and trained on how to act in the event of a threat. To carry out this process, organizations must create and update a training plan, as well as workshops and activities to improve users’ skills and, subsequently, establish a system for monitoring the implementation of these measures, according to the document. All this is essential to maintain the integrity and confidentiality of the organization’s data. One of the ways to improve this protection is through an encrypted communi-

cation system. Another way is by establishing a clear protocol on how documents should be properly disposed of so that they do not fall into the wrong hands. This is why organizations must also establish security controls that act as a barrier to establish permissions between financial systems to detect and mitigate unauthorized data leakage.

The detection section, on the other hand, seeks to ensure that the organization guarantees that network operations are executed in a structured manner. One way to technically implement these systems is to set up systems that can detect the intrusion of a third party into

the system, or to set up a firewall to protect the flow of data. Good cyber threat detection is essential to be able to respond appropriately, so it is important to have a platform in place to respond to incidents.

In short, with this framework, Portugal and its companies now have for the first time a digital protection guide that allows them to be able to know how to respond to current threats. Digitalization, which has advanced enormously in recent years, will continue to progress and this situation will lead to an increase in threats with a system that is up to international standards against these problems. ✖

CULTURE first

BI4ALL offers consulting services in the areas of analytics, big data, data science, AI, data visualizations, CPM, and software engineering.

Hugo Pinto PARTNER, BI4ALL

What specific division currently drives the growth and expansion of BI4ALL?

Data analytics drives our growth. Since the beginning, we have had a strong specialization in pharma and life sciences, one of our biggest client is one of the Top 10 Pharmaceutical companies in the World. Over the years, we have been acquiring a unique experience and extensive knowledge of several business sectors and business functions. BI4ALL allows companies to have competitive advantages by turning their data into insights. Focused on goals, value creation, innovation and delivery, we help organizations to achieve better results by optimizing their organizational structure and control systems, allowing them to have solutions that optimize decision-making. Along its path to success, BI4ALL has helped many clients accomplish their goals. We have the competencies and know-how to be the strongest company operating in data analytics. We provide services in the analytic spectrum to national and international community. Innovation is part of our DNA. When we started this project almost 20 years ago, our dream was to be the best in the market. We want to deliver quality to our customer. Even today, it remains our main goal, which is why we are successful. Our projects depend on our quality and culture.

What are the competitive advantages of BI4ALL that gives the company a leading position in the market?

ing students every year and prepare them for the market. We are picking people from the best universities in Portugal at this moment. There are more and more competitors and companies coming to Portugal to acquire resources. Despite the growing competition, we are able to retain the best human capital—that makes the company efficient and competitive. BI4ALL bets on the continuous appreciation and the hiring of the best talents, and its team is made up of highly qualified professionals. We see the company as an extension of our family. It is more difficult today because we are a big family with more than 300 people, and it is a significant challenge for us to maintain this morale. Our main asset remains our people.

Can you shed some light on your internationalization and expansion strategy?

BIO

Hugo Pinto is the founding partner of BI4ALL, of which he is a partner and responsible for international development. He has 18 years of experience in the analytics market, having developed projects in several areas, mainly international clients, among which life sciences, banking, insurance, and retail stand out. With a degree in business management from Instituto Superior de Gestão, he has extensive knowledge and skills to manage projects based on analytics to optimize processes, time, resources, and results.

Knowledge and quality are the key elements that underpin our success and leading position in the market. We cultivate talent, we constantly train our human resources, and we are able to retain them. The competencies and know-how of our team ensure our success. That is why we established a knowledge center, that also create a bridge between universities and the business community where through our Talent Academy, we intend, in 2022, to support the entry of more than 40 young graduates into the job market, through an intensive and paid training program, with a theoretical and practical basis developed by specialists and dedicated to young people passionate about technology. We train dozens of promis-

More than 50% of the company revenue comes from outside Portugal, and in the next five years, we expect to get 85-90%. Portugal is a limited market. Our strategic plan for the next five years is to strongly invest outside of Portugal. We need to expand and open offices outside of Portugal. We plan to start with Switzerland because we already have customers there. With the pandemic, this development outside of Portugal has slowed down. We have a high level of knowledge so we can penetrate international sophisticated markets: by doing that, we will ensure both the solid growth of our operations and allow our human capital to sharpen its know-how. Our team will be enriched by new international challenges and experiences related to the most dynamic and demanding markets in the world. Throughout 2022 and in the coming years, we want to continue to reinforce our strengths in the area of specialization we dominate, always keeping in mind the objective of continuing to grow and evolve our clients, nationally and internationally. ✖

“Our strategic plan for the next five years is to strongly invest outside of Portugal.”

success STORY

With a presence in 50 countries around the world, Izertis is looking even further and aims to be one of the five biggest IT companies in Portugal.

Ramalho CEO, IZERTIS PORTUGAL

How do you enable the “digital metamorphosis” of your clients?

Everyone talks about the digital transformation, but not many talk about it as a metamorphosis. Business and the way we work today is changing forever and is much deeper, so metamorphosis sounds like a more appropriate term. We wanted to replicate and build up in Portugal the capacities and way of approaching projects that we have done successfully in Spain. We have an Iberian portfolio that we are offering to the world, and then we build our teams according to the projects. Portugal is the hub for Iberia for certain areas, while Spain is the hub for other areas. The goal is an Iberian vision of our operation.

What are the leading segments and business units underpinning and supporting your growth?

For us, business software includes the well-known ERP solutions, CRM, asset management, the supply chain, and so on. They are the standard software built by the large software producers in the world. We represent SAP, IBM, and some of the biggest global players in software development, and we build up our teams locally, we educate and prepare them to serve customers, we support in projects to go live, upgrade, handle maintenance, or whatever else we need to do for software solutions. That is the main business unit in Portugal, and we serve the entire group.

How much are you investing in cybersecurity currently?

Cybersecurity is one of our most relevant areas to find new business, new projects,

or new customers. Every CTO, CIO, and CEO today is absolutely focused on cybersecurity. Most recently in Portugal, we have seen an increasing number of cyber attacks, even against large companies. Every company in Portugal today is looking for security plans and how to become safer. We are approaching many companies with projects that we have already executed in other regions for other customers and have received a great response. It is a hot topic in management priorities.

How do you shape your competitive advantages and remain one step ahead of the increasing competition?

We benefit from a complete and disruptive portfolio. The solutions, the way we approach customers, and the experiences that we bring to customers are all extremely innovative and disruptive. We are leaving many competitors behind, because they are all not able to do that. We advise customers and tell them we have the know-how to execute projects successfully, on time, and on budget, including some demanding projects.

What is the company’s internationalization strategy?

We are looking at Portuguese-speaking territories, and Cape Verde is one of the first countries where we are developing a business. We have been launching and supporting projects that were financed by the World Bank in Cape Verde. We developed a platform for COVID-19 control and management that was part of an international tender. We presented a proposal, won the tender, and executed the project successfully on time and on budget. In addition, we are currently pushing

for projects in the education area for Cape Verde involving a new era of education processes and systems. We are supporting the Cape Verde government, which is extremely interested in blockchain projects. It wants to be one of the hubs in the Africa region for blockchain projects. It has a program, Cape Verde Digital, to transform the country into a digital society. Other than Africa, we are also carrying out some activities in the Middle East from Portugal in Egypt.

What is the main priority on your agenda for this year?

Izertis is working to be one of the fifth-biggest IT companies in Portugal. Our growth has been significant, year after year. We want this growth to be both organic and through acquisitions as well. We have to grow more than the country, we have to expand our operations to the world and not only be based in Portugal. ✖

Ivon Ramalho, currently the CEO of Izertis Portugal, is a seasoned professional with more than 30 years of experience in the IT sector. From business development manager to business owner and partner, he has had significant leadership roles in business projects, national and internationally, in multiple sectors and industries.

Ivon

BIO

Bruno Castro CEO, VISIONWARE

Is the conflict in Ukraine awakening the need among both public and private institutions to invest in cybersecurity?

VisionWare has been working globally since 2007 in the Middle East, Europe, and Africa. Even when we worked in the Middle East at that time, we already had context about cyber warfare and war. It was not a strange matter for us. NATO has established that every member country has to build its own cybersecurity; it is an obligation right now. We are NATO Secret Certified. Even in Portugal, we need to have cybersecurity defense. In the last year, most likely because of COVID-19, everything changed in the world with a “big bang” in technology and information. Everyone is now on the internet, including children and all employees working from home and using the internet to work in every country. Over the last 18 months, we have been witnessing an increasing number of cyberattacks on big companies in Portugal and Europe.

What are the short-term priorities on your agenda?

We will focus on specific divisions such as cyber warfare, intelligence, dark web, dark net cybercrime, and forensics; we want to consolidate our presence in all the countries where we operate. For the next two years, we have one goal that is really important—we will approach Latin America. We plan to start our expansion from Panama.

Cristina Marinhas CEO, QUIDGEST

Headquartered in Lisbon, Quidgest is among the largest management software producers in Europe. What are the milestones achieved by Quidgest over 30 years of operations?

We are proud to have created a company that started with two people and today has 130. We have never resorted to external financial aid in our history, and we have always had sustained and calculated growth. From the beginning, we had the vision of creating a software factory. We saw that all industries automated their processes, but we realized that software was still made the old-fashioned way—a lot of resources were needed to achieve few results. Hence our idea was to generate software automatically. Since 1990 we have developed, and have continued to optimize, a tool named Genio that automatically allows us to build software.

How would you assess the ability of the Portuguese business community to quickly adapt their operations in the wake of COVID-19?

Portuguese organizations are aware of how the digital universe can benefit them. Adaptation in the pandemic was notorious. However, one must consider the lack of means to make digital a reality since the Portuguese business fabric is mostly made up of small companies.

Sandra Texeira GENERAL MANAGER, MAXDATA SOFTWARE

Can you shed some light on the history of your family business?

Nuno Emídio CEO, GESTISOFT

What have been some of the recent achievements of the company?

We have structured the company for growth. We had a challenging year in 2020, but we now have an opportunity to grow at a difference pace that we need to structure the company for. We also have a great customer base with 800 customers and three main pillars of business. The company turned 12 in January. We have three main offers for the Portuguese market: ERP, custom, and infrastructure solutions. We work only in Portugal including Madeira e Azores, and do not have customers in another country. We attempted to expand into Angola in 2018 since ARTSOFT is one of our ERP solutions with a Portuguese-Angolan version; however, the main problem was that the taxes and the legal framework were complicated.

Can you share your portfolio composition in terms of clients?

Our focus is working with a range of SMEs based in the SMB market. We have customers in manufacturing, retail, logistics, and education along with many other sectors. We have not worked in the healthcare sector yet because our solutions do not have a specific process for this industry. Since we started in software apps, they do not have any specific sector, and for us the sector does not matter. We are ready to work with many segments, and our focus now is to maintain our customer satisfaction. We want our customers to be happy with us; that is our main objective.

My father started the company in 1979 to develop a specific software for laboratories. That is our core business. We started to develop this software for a specific laboratory, and then we advanced the software. There was demand mainly from private clinics, and five years after that, we realized we could work with hospitals. We started to develop part of the software for hospitals to manage their laboratories. In the coming years, we have continued to advance our software, and our number of clients continued to increase.

How is Maxdata positioned to support the development of the healthcare sector?

Our solution made it easier for physicians to check information in one place. Over the years, we were able to influence the movement in this healthcare sector, mainly in laboratories. We now have 70-80% of public hospitals working with our solution, and it is now easier to integrate between different hospitals.

José Leal e Silva EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BEE ENGINEERING

What is the core business of Bee Engineering?

We belong to a group of companies in Portugal called the MoOngy Group; there are numerous companies within the group in Portugal and several across Europe. The brand itself, Bee Engineering, was established in France in 2010; the field of operation in France is the energy market. The group has two main branches, one dedicated to energy and the other to IT. In 2013, the brand arrived in Portugal solely dedicated to IT.

What segments and divisions lead your growth in the local market?

The turnkey business last year was maybe four or five times higher than the previous year. Outsourcing also grew, as well as gamification and advergames, because companies became comfortable using the digital instead of the physical market. They began using such solutions for digital promotion and not just for physical promotion and physical events. So, 2021 was a good year for Nectar Interactive because it was a comeback.

João Reis Fernandes EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DECODE

In terms of clients and collaborations, how is your business portfolio structured?

We have two profiles. We have our clients, with whom we meet directly, though in the beginning we used channels and worked with large consultancy companies such Accenture and NTT Data, relationships that we still maintain. Currently, we work across different sectors, such as telcos, sports, logistics, government agencies, and also finance and insurance. We also work with international companies. We have an ongoing project with a company from the Netherlands that provides high end software for insurance companies.

What emphasis are you placing on the concept of human capital and human resources?

Human capital is a priority for us. As a matter of fact, we run two different types of academies: one is more formal and the other is more innovative. We created a bridge between academia and the business community. We saw a gap between what recent graduates had learnt and what the market needed, because it is currently evolving at a pace that is difficult to keep up with.

Tiago Gonçalves CEO, INNOWAVE

Can you share the mission of your company to our readers?

We help our clients, typically telcos and financial services clients, to disrupt and innovate in their business. COVID-19 accelerated the digital transformation. To survive, many businesses figured out they had to accelerate investment. If you have appealing services, you can capture demand. In addition, starting in 2018 we made some strategic investments beforehand to accelerate the internationalization of our business. We opened offices in the US, Netherlands, to add to Belgium and UK, where we had already offices.

What does the future hold for InnoWave, and what are your targets and objectives?

We are in the midst of a four-year strategic plan called LEAD. In terms of revenue, we are at 40% of our targeted level, and aim at a turnover of EUR100 million in 2024. We expect to arrive there through organic growth, international expansion, new products, services, and business units, and M&A initiatives.

António Pedroso CEO, NEW VISION

How has the company evolved since its establishment?

New Vision was established in 2000, and going international was one of our major objectives since the beginning. We invested heavily to expand our presence internationally, and today Portugal—where we are leaders in the segment we represent—generates around 10% of our total revenue. Our presence is strong in the part of Portugal, where we are leaders. Over the years, we have established a presence in sophisticated European markets such as Belgium, Italy, and France.

What was the impact of the pandemic on your operations?

During COVID-19, there was a real need for cash management in the market. Contrary to what was being said, during the pandemic the use of cash increased 20%, as people want physical assets to feel secure. In Latin America and Africa, cash is still heavily used, and it will be in the coming years. We developed a line of products namely machines to deposit cash, recycle, and so on. We are not ATM producers, though we have cash-only deposit machines, heavy-duty deposit machines that we developed especially for banks.

How did the company start and how has it evolved?

From the beginning, we wanted to add value to our products. We first started as hardware producers and later moved onto software. After a few years, we expanded into the market of time attendance. Private companies are a bit different to public ones and we decided to put a foot in each one. When we discovered this type of business, we realized that everything starts with time attendance. What we do with time allows you to manage your operation. We then arrived to the concept of circulation. When people, cars, vehicles, and products circulate inside a company, they produce work, have to be controlled, and there are many synergetic positions between all these movements. We approached private companies to have them understand how the movement of people is a cost they can minimize. We created a set of solutions starting at the entrance of the factory and covering every step of movement.

Can you elaborate on the evolution of the company?

Itancia is a distributor, but we are different from all our competitors. We truly believe in the environment, in a better world, in the better sustainability of our products, and better sustainability for the environment as a whole. Our owner, Yann Pineau, really believes that the companies should do more for the environment than they are doing right now. The company started in the 1980s by renewing desk phones. We were successful in this and so we became, for the majority of the vendors on the market, the main repair station for these vendors. We became so successful that we decided to sell these refurbished products and not just renew them for other vendors

Over the last five years, Itancia grew by 50%. What is behind such remarkable growth and achievement?

Our company is in an good financial status. We invest in stocks that are saleable or what the customers want. We doubled in size from 2019 to 2021. We doubled the people we employ and on top of this we doubled the investment; we bought part of the company that was already in the market and became one company, which is Itancia. Today, we are still growing, and the only problem right now, compared to 2021, is that we cannot invest as much. Our backlog is higher than we had in 2021.

Pedro Serra COUNTRY MANAGER, ITANCIA

Carlos Alfaite CEO, DATELKA INTERNATIONAL

TBY ANALYTICS: PORTUGAL 2022 IT & TELECOMS

We posed a number of questions to our interviewees in the telecoms sector. These are their top responses.

What is the main thrust of your growth plans over 2022?

What have been the knock-on benefits of COVID-19?

Consolidation

International expansion

Domestic expansion

Accelerated digitalization

Shift to permanent WFH

Transition to a paperless economy

Ricardo Martinho has a degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Coimbra. He also holds a master’s in management and marketing from Alcalá de Henares University in Madrid and completed an executive program at the INSEAD management school. Martinho began his professional activity in 1988 as a consultant at Companhia IBM Portuguesa, S.A. Since then, he has held several leadership positions and worked in France and Spain. In 2020, he returned to Portugal as director of the technology unit and assumed a position on the local board of administration. In 2021, he was appointed President of IBM Portugal and the IBM Portugal Group, which also includes Softinsa, BTO, and other complementary groups of companies.

Ricardo Martinho PRESIDENT, IBM PORTUGAL

In Portugal, IBM is focusing its operations on hybrid cloud and AI. Can you tell us more about these divisions?

We changed significantly over the last year; we changed the company totally and our strategy is particularly focused on what we call hybrid cloud and AI. The two main areas in our strategy are to bring technology to the market and customer and, in addition, introduce the idea of expertise. Therefore, we put together these strategies with the best people to implement it. Accordingly, we created a new consultant group with people with considerable experience in building projects around these areas, among others. Thus, we combine the best of the technology with the best of expertise into dynamic solutions. Another important aspect of this change for adding value to the strategy is the overall ecosystem. So, working with local or international partners that can bring value to this change is also crucial. Bringing people with wider experience and other software that can integrate with ours and who can work inside our completely open hybrid cloud always

brings value to us and our customers. We have identified the need to change our culture internally as well, having changed the culture to focus on this. We create new roles with people who have considerable knowledge, who are always studying developments, and who become part of this transformation from the outset. These collaborators are responsible for taking the message to the customer. Also of great importance as part of our new strategy at IBM was the change in our go-to-market model. The net effect of the change was better communication with the customer.

What are your short-term objectives and the main targets on your agenda?

What I have in mind for 2022-2023 is to grow by single digits, as the corporation has set this as the acceptable minimum. I want to increase the number of employees in Portugal. We have around 100 openings at the moment, even if the applicants do not speak Portuguese. We have four innovation centers in Portugal, and we want to open a fifth, and probably a sixth in 2023. One of my objectives is to grow and boost the performance of these centers. There are many opportunities in the interior of the country that, if tapped, will work to the advantage of Portugal as a whole, while bringing considerable local benefit. ✖

BIO

TRANSPORT NETWORK SNAPSHOT

SOURCE: WORLD DATA

Roadways 82,900 KM

Railroads 2,500 KM

Waterways 210

Commercial harbors 726

Airports 64

LISBON AIRPORT SNAPSHOT (MAY 2022)

SOURCE: LISBON AIRPORT

Flights 21,937

A view of Lisbon’s iconic tram system

Image: Nella

PORTS OF PLENTY

As a result of increasing foreign investments, technological developments, and government support, Portugal’s maritime and transportation industry is advanced and competitive at international scale. Dozens of seaports and riverports have been constantly upgrading their facilities, keeping the Portuguese network of ports modern and developed.

Lisbon Port is the most important seaport in Portugal, located at the estuary of the Tagus river. The port handles the majority of the country’s export-import volume and plays a pivotal role in the capital’s economy, serving both the industrial and tourism sectors. For that reason, several international operators and shipping companies have based their headquarters in the area.

Along with Lisbon, the Port of Leixões is one of the most important ports in the country. Built on the Douro river, on the western coast of Portugal, it serves the entire northern region of the nation. A multipurpose port facility, the Port of Leixões handles more than 20% of Portuguese international trade, including cargo, Ro-Ro, solid, liquid bulk, and also passenger vessels.

Sines Port is located on the western coast of Portugal and is deepwater, meaning it can receive the largest ships. It has five terminals designed for handling oil, petrochemicals, LNG, and gen-

eral cargo and containers. A fishing harbor and a leisure marina complete the port. Another important terminal is the Port of Aveiro, dealing in exports of general cargo, such as paper pulp, liquid chemicals, and fish, and the import of grains, metal products, and construction materials.

Despite the ongoing crisis and economic uncertainty, the revenue generated by the logistics and warehousing industry in Portugal is expected to hit around EUR30 billion by the end of 2024. This growth is driven by investment promoted by the government, mainly focused on the development of existing logistics infrastructure, with the growth in e-commerce also a key factor.

As confirmed by the majority of the interviewees from the sector that we spoke to, key players are investing heavily in innovative solutions and technologies, including automated logistics, real-time tracking, and robotics in order to boost their customer service.

Both the pandemic and Ukraine conflict are hitting the logistics sector, forcing European nations to rethink their approach to the industry.

In this context, Portugal must keep on investing in maintaining and modernizing its infrastructure, re-imposing itself as the main logistics hub connecting the Americas with Europe, reducing dependence on China and Russia. ✖

A NEW future

APLOG aims to promote and contribute to the study and development of logistics and supply chain management in Portugal and the country’s competitiveness.

Raul Magalhães PRESIDENT, APLOG

How is APLOG positioned toward the development of the logistics sector in Portugal?

APLOG is a private, national, and non-profit association, consisting of professionals, companies, and other organizations with concerns and interests in the field of logistics management. It carries out its activity in the constant search for logistics excellence, from a management perspective on the flows of materials and information, covering the areas of supply, procurement, production, planning, storage, physical distribution and transportation. APLOG is a member of the European Logistics Association (ELA). To achieve its purpose, APLOG aims to be a reference for logistics knowledge through research, consolidation, and dissemination of innovative techniques, best practices, and trends in logistics and supply chain management. We promote the research and comprehensive broadcasting of logistics knowledge and supply chain management, in general and on specific topics, in collaboration with public entities, universities, and institutes. Our main purpose is also to foster debate, knowledge sharing, and experiences between companies and professionals from different activity sectors, as well as national and international researchers and experts, to enable innovation and knowledge transfer in the field of supply chain management.

How does APLOG help companies improve the quality of their logistics management?

How is the ongoing digitalization process shaping and boosting the performance of the players operating within the local market?

This is an area where we still have a long way to go. Small steps are under way to respond to high growth in e-commerce, but major digital transformation projects are still a vision to pursue, regarding analytical capabilities to deal with demand volatility, short and agile planning cycles, use of AI in logistics process management, and so on. A large investment program is expected to happen in the Portuguese economy taking advantage of the European funds available. There is awareness and a sense of urgency, so we hope it will be accelerated in the coming years. Looking at the logistics function capabilities, a step change will probably occur soon as the platforms as-a-service business models increase their relevance in the market.

What are your short- and medium-term targets?

BIO

Raul Magalhães graduated in engineering from FEUP, management from EGP (PBS), AESE - School of Business

Direction, leadership and organizational transformation at the London Business School, and retailing strategy from Babson Collegue. He also holds a degree in logistics and supply chain from Cranfield School of Management and a postgraduate in internationalization from Porto Business School. He is a member of the International Trade Committee of Eurocommerce and the Logistics and Transport Committees of AECOC. Magalhães has been with APLOG since 2014 as vice president for two terms and is currently in his second term as President.

Our strong training programs, both certified and customs developed, are a reference in the market and continue to prepare logistics professionals to face all the new challenges in the sector, supporting them in their careers and qualifications at a European standard level. Additionally, APLOG conducts several events, seminars, webinars, and conferences, covering the major trends and challenges that companies are facing in the current environment (e.g., last mile and city logistics, sustainability, decarbonization, risk, and resilience). We hold an annual two-day congress with more than 300 attendees where we present and discuss major trends, issues, and challenges that the logistics sector is facing. This has been a reference event in the Portuguese logistics community for more than 20 years.

Customer centricity and experience are now part of the strategy definition for companies in almost all sectors. Today, consumers are better informed, more connected, and more demanding. Exposure to new business models and the preponderance of digital channels has created high expectations. The answer to these challenges implies the orchestration of a set of capabilities, internal and external, and different, more collaborative and more segmented models: the strengthening of demand planning capacities as a whole and response agility and speed are key factors to succeed, recognition that “one-size-fits-all” models are unlikely to be efficient and effective in dealing with multiple customer segments, resulting in the creation of micro supply chains, physical and/ or virtual. Portugal has a fundamental challenge to smart invest the available budget in the European funds, choosing the right bets to transform the economy in a much more modern and competitive model. Particular attention in the logistics sector in selected investments in key fundamental infrastructures along with transformation of services providers capabilities and solution offers are mandatory in the coming three to five years. ✖

A NEW reality

Euroatla continues to focus on technological development in the sector in order to remain agile and develop creative solutions in an ever-changing world.

Sandra Ayres CEO, EUROATLA AND EURONAVE, COSCO SHIPPING LINES AGENCY

How have you been working on diversifying your portfolio?

Our traditional sector has been exports of food and beverages. We also have an distinct characteristic in the market in Portugal in that we have a significant customer base outside Portugal, mainly importers. They are distributors or retailers at end destinations who need a reliable partner to coordinate supplier management and logistics from the point the origin. Lately, we have expanded into construction—a strong sector in Portugal—and other Portuguese products such as cork and textiles. We have also diversified services across trades, expanding from our traditional trade which has been and still is with the US and the UK.

Here in Portugal, you represent COSCO SHIPPING, one of the largest shipping lines in the world. What is the importance of this partnership?

less than 1% five years ago to over 8% in the Asia trade.

What does innovation means at Euroatla, and how much are you investing in it to make your operations more agile?

BIO

Sandra Ayres graduated in law and started working as an university teacher and legal adviser for maritime affairs in the Portuguese government. She later worked as board member at Lisbon Port Authority. She worked in AICEP, an independent public entity, with the goal of attracting foreign investment to Portugal, as a senior consultant, and later as a member of the board of AICEP Global Parques. Since 2015, she has been the CEO of shipping and freight forwarding company, Euroatla. In 2020, she assumed the presidency of Agência Maritima Euronave another company belonging to the same shareholders.

COSCO SHIPPING Lines is a multinational company, based in Shanghai, mainly engaged in domestic and international maritime container transport services and related businesses. It has nine overseas branches in Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, West Asia, South America, Australia, Japan, Korea, and Africa. By April 2021, it owned and operated 403 container vessels in and out of 558 ports with a total capacity of 2.2 million TEUs, ranking fourth in the world in terms of shipping capacity. The collaboration between our companies and COSCO began in the 1990s. Despite being an independent agency, we are deeply interconnected. Recently, COSCO transferred the intra-Europe Services to Diamond Line (a wholly-owned subsidiary) to be in a better position to improve overall customer service in Europe. We identify with its mission, customer focus, digitalization, and end-to-end to enhance customers’ experience and continuously create greater value for customers and partners. The secret ingredient to this long partnership is trust. That, and some hard work, has made us obtain improving conditions to develop the market in Portugal. As a result, our market share has grown, from

It is fundamental to invest in digital technology. This industry is moving away from paper and adopting digital. Seven years ago, when we rethought our strategy as a company, we decided it was strategic to be on top of every technological development in the sector. The way we adapted to the pandemic confirmed that we made the right investment. Thanks to online communication tools, technology enables us to work remotely without any loss of productivity. Connectivity is better now than it has ever been. We believe technology will divide the industry between the companies with a vision, and those not willing to invest. There is also the challenge of cyber risk management that we have been addressing. The supply chain is a very fragmented market with participants who largely rely on paper; the biggest issue now is how do we share the data? Probably blockchain will have a long-term role to play.

What are your main targets and ambitions set for 2022?

Demand has picked up heavily, and scarcity of supply is a big issue. Our budget and activities plan for 2022 were initially conceived with the optimistic expectation of getting back to a situation more similar to the pre-pandemic. We are monitoring the impact of the inflation and interest rates, the price of commodities such as wheat, the chaos in global food markets brought on by the war in Ukraine, and the long-term disruption to Russian energy flows and its impact on what was already a tight global oil market. Volatility and uncertainty have become a way of life, We might continue to experience for a while longer voyages and lead times, and problems of availability and cost, but we think it is feasible that customers will remain well served. We will keep aiming to create agile and creative solutions to our evolving customer’s needs. ✖

better way OF DOING THINGS

Using a combination of IT and AI, Wide Scope is able to help companies improve their operational efficiencies and become significantly more efficient.

Filipe Carvalho CO-FOUNDER & GENERAL MANAGER, WIDE SCOPE

Can you elaborate on the evolution of your company and its core business?

Wide Scope started in 2003 with a team of mathematicians and AI practitioners who built a piece of software called Routyn for routing optimization. Routyn is a fleet routing and scheduling system. With skills that aggregate knowledge from math, AI, and IT, we developed new approaches that reduce costs and improve our clients’ operational efficiencies beyond what the most experienced person can plan. Overall, the system allows any fleet to be more efficient by delivering cargo faster at the lowest cost possible. Our customers are companies from all over the world in all kinds of industries, from distribution retailers to FMCG, whether it is medical, gas, private beverage distribution, or construction companies. When operating a professional fleet, a company has to do it efficiently to reduce miles, limit fuel consumption, and deliver more in less time and money. That is what the product does: boosts operational efficiency.

More consumers have begun shopping online in greater numbers and frequency after COVID-19. How did you capitalize on that?

One major change brought by the pandemic was that many companies were required to shut down their physical presences during the lockdown, though had to keep selling and delivering to customers at home. We launched a free program, with no commitments, during lockdown to help companies that had no other means of planning or operating their own logistics because they had never done it before. The entire e-commerce logistics sector grew significantly, and we helped these companies deliver more at lower costs. All our e-com-

merce customers grew, and we grew alongside them. We also saw the entry of quick commerce or almost instant e-commerce, where deliveries are made in less than an hour, measured in minutes. In the market today, there are many companies that did not exist before the pandemic that deliver groceries, or even televisions, in less than one hour.

What is your strategy to consolidate and expand your business internationally?

Since 2015, we have started to grow internationally. We started in Sydney, the location of our first office, and continued to expand to Singapore, London, France, and Cyprus. We also have a strong presence in Turkey with several customers. We are about to launch our products in the US, though we already have some customers there. We provide services to several sectors, such as healthcare, medical, F&B, construction, and retail. We are very strong in retail, and this is where we have most of our customers, especially in the UK, Portugal, and France. These are the companies that require routing efficiency the most.

How do you approach new potential clients and educate them about the benefits of your services and the uniqueness of your digital tools?

Almost all our leads are from word of mouth. It is usually a company that achieved a certain level of earnings or won an internal innovation award. We even have some customers that have won logistic awards nationally. Most of what we do is the pre-sales approach. We speak with them and propose a proof of concept. We generally provide the software and do a modeling of the business operation with no commitments,

because most companies eventually realize how much of an improvement the software delivers. We are operating in an extremely specific niche market, though the key distinguishing feature of our product is that it was created precisely to fill in the gap of what customers were complaining about with other products in the market. That is where we are positioned.

Can you share with your ambitions and targets set in your 2022 agenda?

We will keep on investing on the automated learning techniques of the system. There is great potential to explore in automating the whole supply-chain planning and execution with AI and optimization tools. Previously, our company grew 500% over five years in a row, and we are preparing the grounds for the next jump. ✖

Filipe Carvalho is an entrepreneur, mathematician, business strategist, and speaker at entrepreneurship events. He is also an advisor of dissertations, a scientific papers publisher, and speaker at conferences. Without any funding whatsoever, he founded Wide Scope with Ana Pereira in 2003. The company was quickly ranked as one of the highest growth companies in Portugal and then one of the 500 fastest-growing tech companies in EMEA. It is now present in several countries and serves customers from all over the world.

BIO

GROWTH in sight

Regardless of its successes in the last few years, Moldtrans Portugal is aiming higher and focusing on greater digitalization and further consolidation of its operations.

Luís Castro Paupério HEAD OF MARKETING, MOLDTRANS PORTUGAL

BIO

Luís Castro Paupério is an architect based in Porto and a founding partner of escritóriopequeno: arquitectura, he has been collaborating with the freight forwarder Moldtrans, specifically within the marketing and communications department, to implement the company’s strategies in Portugal. He holds a master’s degree in architecture and is currently working on his PhD in art education at the faculty of fine arts at the University of Porto. He has spoken at several international conferences and workshops, such as ECER, The NW29 Winter School, EPRAE and EI_EA. He is also a member of i2ADS, the Research Institute in Art, Design, and Society.

What is the importance of Portugal in light of the international operations of Moldtrans? In Portugal, we represent a small slice of the company. While we are well over 300 people in the entire Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands, here, we employ 30 people, distributed across three locations. Moldtrans has had a steady and progressive growth throughout the years—we are taking about over 40 years of existence in Spain and almost 20 years of capital in Portugal, even though in Porto, there is a team with more than 30 years of experience—and we are now in a point of transition, from a family owned/ locally relevant company to an internationally ambitious one. This leads us to multiple actions: to understand the importance of Portugal in light of the international operations of the company, one must also understand Portugal—business wise—in its specificities. That has to do with acknowledging the relevance of SMEs within the Portuguese market, representing almost 100% of the business fabric here, and the lack of global Portuguese brands. To feed the international options of transport, competitively, is to also present these companies with a viable partner in the internationalization of their products—if we are talking about exports—and supporting the costs and quality of the products—if we are talking about import. Consequently, these companies end up diversifying their products and clients. This is how, in Portugal, Moldtrans proved its success and how we have been part of such expansion. By increasing our presence in the territory via mergers and acquisitions, we are building the strategy of the company for the following years to locally support businesses in their activities and promote their international presence. These are our plans for the nearby future and this is how Portugal can continue to relevantly contribute to the international operations’ policy.

Can you share some indicators summing up the performance of the company in 2021? 2021 has proven to be a good year for us. In Portugal, we increased revenues from EUR5.5 million in 2020 to EUR7 million in 2021, an increase of more than 25%, while the EBIT increased 40%. All around—Portugal and Spain—we are talking about a revenue of EUR103

million, 35% more than in 2020. We are working with over 12,000 clients in Portugal and Spain altogether and this is due to: buying better (using “confirming” or negotiating reductions through payment conditions); a lower dependence on banks; managing our costs better; and an increase in production while maintaining the same number of employees.

How does Moldtrans instill and carry out the concept of innovation in its daily operations?

These last years, we have set as our priority to perfect of the digital aspect in our company. We are using BeOne, which is a complex but extensive software, throughout all our departments, be it sales, operational, accounting, and even managing. In short, the possibility for combining these aspects result in two fundamental improvements: accelerating processes; and reducing the probability of mistakes in the process. These two points—optimizing time and minimizing mistakes—are extremely important, not only for the clients who are better served, but also for the employees who feel their work is more valued. This a key aspect. Other than that, we have been dynamizing the marketing and communication actions, internally and externally, basing such activities in so-called wellness. Even though we are a transport company, we must also understand that our employees and clients are people. This also has led us to become more involved with social organizations, supporting different institutions annually in both countries, but also changing our habits to cut our carbon emissions. We have done away with plastic in the coffee machines, changed our lighting features for more efficient ones, and managed our heating/cooling systems to reduce emissions and costs. We want to be a good business for sure, but also play an important social role. ✖

“In Portugal, we increased revenues from EUR5.5 million in 2020 to EUR7 million in 2021, an increase of more than 25%.”

A PRESENT WITHOUT FRICTION

WE are dealing, now, with a reality in which the traditional industries are facing more and more challenges so as to rediscover their relevance in a market that is increasingly globalized, fast-paced and ever-changing. While there is a digital reality that mutates daily, changing the ecosystem itself and conditioning its ramifications, one must also acknowledge the existing infrastructures and typical processes of operating within it. This puts forward an evident tension that imposes, but also inspires changes in the sector: it is urgent to become resilient and innovative. A global shipment can easily involve dozens of organizations and hundreds of varied interactions. To contemplate reality as single-sided is therefore quite incoherent; so, these contrasting realities — fields of work, nationalities, laws, idioms, industrial and educational backgrounds, ports, warehouses, retailers, to name a few — must converge so as to fulfil their goal which is common: to properly serve the client through a service of excellence. These existing heterogeneous infrastructures, if not properly articulated and revamped, will generate higher costs, delays and all-around errors; this is not only a financial matter, but also an environmental one: the complexification of inefficient systems adds up to more waste and carbon emissions. These physical limitations, which take up a great amount of time and effort to be changed and accepted, can be worked out through a conceptual and digital infrastructure to reduce friction and improve transparency between the parts involved. This results in an all-around better, and easier,

coordination based in horizontal partnerships between the elements which concern the process of transporting goods; industries, warehouses, sea shipping companies, road transport enterprises, retailers — for example —, all exchanging data contribute to a holistic vision of the process. Macro-management is then possible, while also preserving the details. This is where the relevance of freight forwarding comes in, intensely: that of building the perfect bridge between clients and the entire logistic process.

This is what drives us, in Moldtrans, and it is this what we are striving for. These last years, the pandemic and also the invasion of Ukraine have amplified the already existing issues and have made us accelerate and refine our strategies in the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands, which we can resume in three key aspects:

i) Perfecting the digitalisation of the processes we deal with: we are fully integrated within a coherent and detailed digital platform, which allows for an integrated management of goods and processes.

ii) Diversifying our services: with a perfectly solid road transport service, we have continued to conceive different routes with different areas and countries, always collaborating with well trusted agents; the logistics services have been quite demanding, with e-commerce and the daily shipment of smaller parcels increasing dramatically which have made us improve our warehouse conditions, with specific infrastructures to answer to such demand. Specifically in Portugal, besides what was just mentioned, sea

and air freight also represent a great boost to the company’s activity. This has also furthered Moldtrans’ internationalization, in which in-house management has become fundamental so as to keep the best control we can of our clients’ goods: customs management is handled directly by us and we have specific areas in our warehouses for non-dispatched goods.

iii) Long-term planning aiming for the expansion of the company: as we continue to grow — by maintaining a consolidated tendency in our already known services and by intensifying our new products —, the plans point towards an improvement of services and presence via M&A.

Our success in these three points have made us improve — staff, clients, revenue, etc. —, allowing for a great shift in our DNA: from a more traditional, familiar company, into an internationally ambitious one. Biweekly road transport throughout Europe and Northern Africa, global air and sea shipping, logistics and warehouse management, trade fairs logistics, express and exclusive transports; these are mere examples of the services we can offer.

All of them integrally managed, with all information flowing transparently and agilely between Moldtrans and our clients, with great attention and care.

The context which we have approached makes evident the need for being accompanied by a team which can help companies navigate through these seas of uncertainty. We are here to support your business, we are here to do the best we can for our clients. ✖

ABOUT MOLDTRANS

Moldtrans is one of the leading companies within the Iberian logistics industry.

From its roots as a company fully aimed at road transport, becoming a leading, trendsetter actor, to its now overarching presence within the logistics and transport universe, providing an array of fully integrated services, Moldtrans is at a point of transition: expansion from a locally relevant practice to a global actor in the sector.

In Portugal we are located in Porto, Lisbon and Aveiro, with a diverse team of professionals, with over 30 years of experience in the area, whilst also being strategically located throughout Spain and the Canary Islands.

WE ARE EAGER TO FURTHER YOUR BUSINESS.

WE ARE LOGISTICS.

NEW era

With the boom in air cargo as a result of the pandemic, AASMVAZ was able to employ its extensive experience and flexibility to succeed even in tough times.

Antonio Alberto Sotto Mayor Vaz DIRECTOR, AASMVAZ

2022 marks the 20th anniversary of AASMVAZ. How did the company evolve in the last two decades?

AASMVAZ’s history could be split in two phases. I joined Lufthansa in 1967 and stayed until 2002 always in the cargo division. Then, I decided to leave the company to start AASMVAZ and simultaneously was invited to become Lufthansa’s general sales agent, representing the company in terms of cargo and logistics with focus on the Lisbon area, from Coimbra to Faro. For the first 11 years, our sole focus was to properly represent Lufthansa Cargo, as most of our customers were forwarding agents. Eventually, both Lufthansa and AASMVAZ agreed to end the partnership, which marked the beginning of phase two. Instead of retiring, I invited the team to redefine the company and embrace new challenges. Lacking in clients and even proper network, we had to start from scratch, which was a great but rewarding challenge given our present success. At first, we exclusively handled air cargo and focused on expanding our network, being members of the Spanish and Chinese chambers of commerce, as well as the German-Portuguese Chamber of Commerce for 12 years. This was the kickstart to develop excellent connections, as we were generally unknown in the logistics world.

Which division of the company is the most successful?

ed us with the experience we very much needed in terms of team know how and market demands. Eventually, we decided to embrace the sea freight segment, which has also been a positive experience for us. Our extreme flexibility and reliability are key. Our customers know it and that is the basis of our success

Did COVID-19 mark a third phase for the company, and did you have to adjust some of your operations?

BIO

Antonio Alberto Sotto Mayor Vaz has been with Deutsche Lufthansa from 1967 to date. He started as a logistics supervisor and sales manager at Lufthansa Cargo for Lisbon. He is a certified forwarding agent technic director from the Instituto de Mobilidade e Transportes (IMMT), a certified DGR professor (until 2002) from IATA -International Air Transport Association, and a certified known shipper from the Portuguese Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC). Since 2002, he has been founder, partner, and Managing Director of AASMVAZ, lda, representing Lufthansa Cargo for the Lisbon region (2002-2013) and since 2014, an IATA Forwarding Agent.

Although all our segments are successful, the highlight goes to the time critical. This has mostly to do with the automotive industry given its high volatility in terms of production chain. When asked about their expectations for air cargo, most automotive logistics departments are reluctant about it due to a higher general cost when compared to its sea counterpart. However, there are enough last-minute situations to create a market for air cargo in this industry. We are asked to find solutions on a 24-hour timeframe or even less, which means we have to be ready on a 24/7 basis, including weekends and public holidays, that being one of our great competitive advantages. The Lufthansa days provid-

I was invited by the airport authorities in January 2020 to talk about the prospects on the air cargo branch for the local market because a consultant company came to provide market solutions. Before COVID-19, air cargo was regularly seen as aviation’s poor segment, a perspective I deeply disagree, as it was indeed one of its strongest assets. The pandemic proved my point, as the catastrophic fall in passenger transportation revenue was not the reality for the cargo branch, which remained rather stable. From one day to another, airlines turned to freight flights. We did our part in adapting and finding solutions. One, for example, was to pick up cargo at the border with Spain, as some companies were not flying to Portugal. We do give up or do nothing to overcome challenges, and COVID-19 ended up as a solid opportunity for us.

What are your main targets and priorities?

My target is to capitalize on every single opportunity that the market will generate. There are always opportunities; it is a matter of philosophy. If there’s a need to change or to find different solutions, we embrace it. This is only possible due to our young and motivated team, who knows the job well, given all the training and certification courses we provide them with, an advantage of being part of different associations and chambers of commerce. As for me, retiring is not yet an option. I enjoy my work and look at the future with bright eyes. ✖

“Our extreme flexibility and reliability are key.”

A Lisbon bus headed downtown

Image: bellena

SAIL AWAY

With a public-private partnership model, Portugal has achieved an investment of EUR1.1 billion in infrastructure to modernize and improve its port network.

PORTUGAL ENJOYS A MODERN AND COMPETITIVE shipping industry as a result of private investment and support from the country’s government. Sea and river ports have significantly improved their facilities, enabling the development of an advanced logistics infrastructure in Europe’s westernmost country. In this way, the Portuguese Atlantic coast stands out as a key point for maritime traffic between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

Portugal has a successful built a system of private concessions over the recent years. According to the latest Port Ecosystem Report produced by the Mobility and Transport Authority, the 26 existing concessions have generated an investment of EUR1.1 billion since they were granted until December 2019. Of that amount, 86.7% has been in the hands of the concessionaires, while the remaining 13.3% has been made by the various port administrations.

Among other projects, these investments have made it possible to carry out works to improve maritime accessibility to port infrastructures, as well as investments to improve information technology and to digitalize banking system procedures. The lion’s share of the EUR1.1 billion went to the Port of Sines, Portugal’s leading cargo handling port, with an investment of EUR420 million to finance part of the construction of its container terminal. Meanwhile, the port of Setúbal has invested EUR183 million and Lisbon has invested EUR74 million, according to the report.

However, the Portuguese logistics chain has been affected by the disruption generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as has occurred in the rest of the world. “The effects of the pandemic are still being felt, creating constraints throughout the supply chain, increasing the delivery timings of all products,” said José Castel-Branco, a member of the board of directors of the Administration of the Port of Lisbon,

during an interview with The Business Year.

This challenge is compounded by an exponential increase in the price of shipping due to factors such as a certain change in consumer habits, coupled with an increase in trade in larger volume goods that take up more space on cargo ships, said Castel-Branco. “Regarding cargo operations and after a 37.25% reduction in 2020 compared to 2019, the year 2021 was a year of recovery for the Port of Lisbon. In 2021 approximately 9.4 million tons of cargo were handled, an increase of 4.5% compared to the previous year,” he addedss.

Despite these challenges, the National Investment Program 2030 foresees a total investment of EUR2.1 billion. Of this amount, most of the resources will go to the Port of Sines with an investment of EUR 940 million. It is followed by the Lisbon port with EUR265 million, Leixões with EUR379 million, Setúbal with EUR124 million and Aveiro with EUR113 million. All these projects will be developed under the public-private investment model, according to the National Investment Program 2030.

The investment of the port of Sines aims to improve the competitiveness of the port by adapting its infrastructures with, among other projects, the expansion of cargo handling capacity with the construction of a new terminal. The investment in the port of Lisbon aims to increase the size of the vessels that can dock at the port, while in the port of Leixões the intention is to advance in its sustainable development in addition to building a new shipping terminal. Finally, the EUR113 million investment in the Port of Aveiro aims to improve the logistical capacity of transport within the Atlantic Corridor of the Portuguese coast.

The total port infrastructure investment of EUR2.1 billion also includes EUR102 million to improve the Douro River’s navigability. This

is a major project to improve the Douro navigation channel, a 208-km long waterway that has been in operation since 1990. This waterway allows navigation to the inland part of Portugal from the Douro River estuary on the Atlantic Ocean to the mouth of the Águeda River, on the border with the Spanish frontier. It is accessible to river-sea vessels of up to 2,500 tons, at least up to the commercial port of Lamego. Looking ahead, part of the improvement of Portugal’s maritime infrastructure involves a long-term focus on the sustainability of the maritime industry. In this regard, the next-generation European COVID-19 funds for economic recovery and transformation, of which the country will receive a total of EUR16 billion, include improving

the efficiency, sustainability and electrification of infrastructure. The development of sustainable port infrastructure is part of that agenda, and private companies have already set their sights on working to develop a greener industry.

“We will focus on designing new approaches and methodologies linked to the concepts of decarbonization, the environment, and climate change and how we can engage and provide the proper interface between land and mostly coastal countries and the ocean,” said Bruno Dias, CEO at Grupo Qualiseg, a consulting firm in the maritime sector. “This needs to be much better addressed and brought to the mainstream,” he added. ✖

SMOOTH sailing

Despite the pandemic and general uncertainty, APL is optimistic and expects the Port of Lisbon to recover in the coming years in terms of both goods activity and cruises.

José Castel-Branco MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, ADMINISTRATION OF

BIO

José Castel-Branco is CFO of APL as well as the Administration of Ports of Setúbal and Sesimbra (APSS). He is chairman of the supervisory board at Infraestruturas de Portugal and head of the office of the minister of finance of the XIV Government. José Castel-Branco is also executive director at Public Participations SGPS, executive director of Estradas de Portugal, and chairman of the supervisory board at Metro and Carris. He is also CFO of Portuguese Roads Public Company, member of Audit Supervisory Board of CGD.

PORT OF LISBON (APL)

THE

What are the key emerging trends and challenges in the maritime industry?

The natural trend will be towards increased shipping, regardless of the necessary investment in new and more efficient technologies to increase the environmental sustainability and energy efficiency of this sector. From an environmental point of view, maritime transport will always be the most efficient for long distances and high volumes of cargo. In cruises, the recovery has been gradual, but the industry looks to the future with confidence and enthusiasm, with cruise lines forecasting to have 100% of their fleets back in service by spring/summer 2022 and estimating occupancy rates to steadily increase month on month, and even return to pre-pandemic occupancy levels by late summer 2022.

What impact did the pandemic have on the port’s operations?

Regarding cargo operations and after a 37.25% reduction in general cargo in 2020 compared to 2019, 2021 was a year of recovery for the Port of Lisbon. In 2021, approximately 9.4 million tons of cargo were handled, an increase of 4.5% compared to the previous year. With regard to cruise activity at the Port of Lisbon, after more than a year without commercial calls cruise activity was authorized in the ports of the national mainland territory as of May 2021. The first call at the Port of Lisbon after the stoppage caused by the pandemic situation took place in July 2021, with the arrival of the World Navigator.

The Port of Lisbon won, for the sixth time, the Europe’s Leading Cruise Port 2020 from World Travel Awards Europe. What factors underpin this achievement?

Port of Lisbon has worked and will continue to work, together with the concessionaire LCP and the remaining partners, in pursuit of a common goal: to enhance the port and the city of Lisbon as a sustainable cruise destination of excellence. This award represents the determination and commitment of all stakeholders who contributed to the success: the port authority, the terminal operator and all partners committed to a structural development

strategy, which brought us to where we are today. Lisbon, as a port and cruise destination, guarantees a sustainable response to present and future challenges.

How is sustainability promoted across all the port’s operations?

In addition to ensuring the daily management of environmental issues related to port operations, and with the occupation of public domain that is assigned to its management, the Port of Lisbon develops various environmental studies, including environmental monitoring studies. One of the projects underway in this environmental area is the technical feasibility study of an installation to bring electricity to ships at the Port of Lisbon (shore to ship), with the aim of being able to supply cruise and cargo ships during their stay, for a reduction in polluting emissions into the atmosphere. The sustainable development of cruise ship tourism has been another of the industry’s great objectives. In this matter, the Port of Lisbon has sought to integrate management principles associated to the best environmental, social, and economic practices into its areas of activity, as these constitute fundamental factors for the development and consolidation of its activity, with increased responsibilities in the national port context.

What are your objectives and goals in the 2022 agenda?

Many projects have been executed over the last few years, and several are projected for the future. There are three projects that will contribute to a greater symbiosis between the port and the city of Lisbon: a project of navigability on the Tagus, which will allow the removal of container transport trucks from the highway; a project to level off the Alcântara line to improve rail access to the terminal, particularly with regard to the current hourly constraints of using the track; and the East Zone Reordering Project, to improve the circulation of heavy traffic and the integration of the port area with the urban surroundings, between Poço do Bispo Docks and Santa Apolónia, creating a smoother transition between the terminal access road and the urban area. ✖

STRONG CONNECTION

QUALISEG HAS A STRONG CONNECTION to the sea, since its founders have more than 3 decades of maritime experience, while being renowned teachers and researchers in the field of engineering, management and logistics. Due to its position in industry and academia fields, Qualiseg constitutes a relevant interface business company positioned between the maritime and industry sector, ranging from maritime authorities, such as the Navy and port management companies, to private sector and the academia. Qualiseg provides consulting, auditing, outsourcing, training, and certification services in the field of Industrial and Maritime Engineering and Management.

Qualiseg offers major expertise in designing, planning, and delivering certified training and exercises in ports, port installations, ships and industrial organizations, according to each client’s vision and needs, and in developing R&I projects for maritime and industrial organizations. Moreover, Qualiseg’s know-how in the field of standardization and systems’ management and certification is also recognized by the ABS Certification Authority (ABS Group) and by the ICDQ Certification Body.

The Maritime Logistics Engineering and Management (MarLEM) Project is a good example of this. It is promoted by Qualiseg, in partnership with a consortium involving NOVA School of Science and TechnologyFCT-NOVA (PT), CINAV/Portuguese Navy Academy (PT), University of Strathclyde (UK), Fórum Oceano (PT), Marine South East Ltd. (UK), Foundation WEGEMT (NL), and

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.

Centre for Research and Technology Hellas

- CERTH (GR). MarLEM Project is funded through the European Commission (EC), Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), European Maritime Fisheries Fund (EMFF). It addresses the existence of gaps and needs for higher education supporting the proper development of maritime activities with appropriate actions to structure the new Masters in Maritime Logistics (MML). Innovation in the conceptual and actionable knowledge management also emerges from MarLEM Project through the Atlantic Knowledge Triangle (AKT), which aims at becoming a recognized collaborative platform that promotes effective initiatives and opportunities for knowledge creation, exploitation and dissemination in the maritime-port domain. By aggregating entities from academia, governance authorities and industry as vertexes, AKT aims to establish the best framework for the development of skills, aligned and focused on the needs of the maritime-port sector in the Atlantic, and with subsequent expansion to the other EU maritime basins. To this end, it will promote, design and implement R&I, training, standardization, regulations’ improvement and other related initiatives, in order to provide adequate skills, thus contributing to strengthen the EU Maritime Capabilities. Maritime Cluster partners in MarLEM Project will play an important role in using their networks with a purpose to reach and engage key European stakeholders across all the EU Coastal Member-States. Establishing AKT as an informal collaboration platform be-

tween industry, academia and governance authorities (port/maritime) will be a major and enduring output of MarLEM Project. The M4LM - Mobility for Maritime Logistics Project is another example, aiming to put into action the bilateral exchange of students/ trainees, teachers and lecturers within the domain of Master programmes in Maritime Logistics exclusively dedicated for graduate professionals.

But Qualiseg’s R&I projects goes beyond the scope of education and knowledge management dynamics and architectures. The Marine Pollution Control Simulator (MPCS) Project aims at developing a cloud-based tool easily reachable through different platforms (mobile, tablet, or laptop), that allows the providing of training, exercising, assessment, and performance evaluation of the marine pollution control, at different levels; The Port and Maritime Supply Chain Integrated Security Management (GISAMP) Project aims to operationalize a collective efficiency strategy that considers the maritime-port process in a more comprehensive perspective, addressing the strategic, operational and support levels, and allowing the implementation of good international practices and management certification of the maritime-port supply chain security; and the Safety Score Permit (SSP) Project aims to reverse the trend of stagnation in companies and to guide the purpose of safety for a sustained reduction of accidents at work by considering new approaches that are more aligned both with the labour market’s reality and the mindset of the contemporary society. ✖

AREA of expertise

Grupo Qualiseg has been operating in the Portuguese market providing innovative solutions for the industry, maritime, and government sectors for over 25 years.

Bruno Dias CEO, GRUPO QUALISEG

Can you elaborate on Qualiseg’s core business?

We have been working in the engineering and management side of consultant work for 27 years. Today, Qualiseg provides innovative solutions for the industry, maritime, and government sectors. We are a medium-sized company of consultants. Almost everyone in our company works directly with clients on a consultant level. Right now, our main business is in Portugal, but we have business in Mozambique and Angola. We also work with many European institutional partners and are always keen to establish new collaborations to expand our projects. We work heavily with ISO standards and mostly in two specific sectors: maritime, especially on the port side, port community, the port organization; and the heavy industry, mainly focusing on engineering and management systems, such as quality, safety, security, and implementing International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS) and ISO 28000 in Portuguese Ports, for example. We started as an engineering company, mainly focused on health and safety, and eventually, we moved toward the management aspects of companies, mainly quality and lean management. Over the years, this has been our focus. We have worked closely with construction companies, and when the economic crisis hit Portugal, we shifted more to the heavy industry, because it offered greater stability. It is important for us to talk about the maritime industry; right now in Portugal, it is a sector that we cannot look away from. There have been many investments and a strong focus on sustainability in the maritime industry.

How is Qualiseg supporting the development and innovation of the maritime sector?

Instead of offering solutions directly based on clients’ needs, we are trying to develop our own projects in terms of innovation. We have one approved project that involves a large consortium of companies, MarLEM. We also developed the Atlantic Knowledge Triangle (AKT), which aims to promote alignment between the skills required by the maritime-port industry and

the skills developed by universities while observing the requirements defined by the competent authorities. We want to clearly identify the processes of the blockchain for a more expedited way of doing businesses and create development and growth. We will be able to track the needs and requirements of the sector, where the technical and the financial human resources lie, how we can develop proper solutions, and how we can make it happen in a more efficient and effective way. Qualiseg is the main promoter of AKT; we are the bridge between the academic and industry parts of this initiative. We also have other projects regarding ports. One of them is the implementation of supply chain best practices, mainly according to ISO standards. We are re-thinking and optimizing the way logistics and supply chain are handled by port operators.

How do you establish a reputation in such a small and competitive market?

Our chairman was the first one in the country to talk about the integration of quality, the environment, and safety systems; he merged them together in a unique business approach. This was unheard of in Portugal. Even the ISO standards of that time did not really address the situation. Now, in the main industries in Portugal, or even the port side of things, these three management systems are all being addressed together. Qualiseg is a pioneer in the sector; our know-how and experience have given us a clear vision of the future. That is our competitive advantage over our competitors. One of the main factors that lead Qualiseg to grow, even during the economic crisis, is addressing these situations with the most innovative solutions possible. We have dipped our feet in technology with a few projects that directly involve technology or IoT, especially in the maritime industry, such as data collection and data communication. We are trying to work our way through there as well, because we have the ideas, and we know how to find partners that can help us implement them. ✖

BIO

Bruno Dias is a consultant and the CEO of Qualiseg. He is an environment engineer and a Level V health and safety technician with over 15 years of experience in management systems implementation, audit, and training in a multitude of sectors, in Portugal and abroad. He leads the operations team in Qualiseg with a special focus on vanguard ISO standards implementation and custom solutions for its clients.

Mark Dawson CEO, GARLAND GROUP

With more than 240 years of operations, Garland is one of the oldest Portuguese companies operating in logistics. How has the company evolved over time? We have seen continued growth in the last 10 years and restructured the group such that we are currently focused on three sectors: logistics, transport, and shipping. The focus of the group in the last few years has been to improve our infrastructure in two areas. One is the IT side, and we have been investing heavily to upgrade our IT infrastructure. We have a plan all the way through to 2025. The other side has been in infrastructures of logistical centers. We have invested in this because the market does not necessarily offer the best solutions. By the end of 2022, we should have anywhere between 135,000 to 150,000sqm of logistic infrastructure that have all the necessary requisites to be cost effective and productive in offering solutions. Outside of Portugal, we are in two countries, Spain and Morocco, where we

are quickly growing and expanding. In both cases, it was because customers drove us to those places. We are looking at possibly creating a transport hub in Spain and looking at where opportunities emerge.

What factors distinguish Garland from the competition, allowing it to lead the market?

The key factors are people and technology. We place great importance on the way we look after our staff and give them the conditions to work in the best possible way with training and other benefits. We consider ourselves a family. Garland also has the know-how and a solid reputation. We are a flexible company, which is extremely important. We are small in the global market, but reasonably big in our local market. We have a strong market position in all three sectors that we are involved in. We are fairly different from the other multinationals in that we have built up an asset base. We own about 50% of our properties and warehouses. This makes us strong financially, especially when there were economic crises in the country. Considering our history, we have built up a large network of global partners, several of which we have worked with for many years. This gives us a global reach where we can do transport basically wherever we want. ✖

BIO Mark Dawson was with Interamericana insurance in Argentina from 1991-1992 and with the Garland Group from 1992 to date. He has been a board member of the Garland Group since 1999.

Image: brunocoelho

Construction & Real Estate THE OFFICE RETURNS

Real estate and construction are becoming some of Portugal’s leading sectors, driving the growth of the wider economy in 2022. Areas on the radar of investors include logistics, office space, affordable housing, tourism-related properties, and student residences.

After witnessing a slight decline during the pandemic, interest in land investment and development coming from both domestic and international buyers is reaching pre-pandemic levels, if not surpassing them. By 2020, more than half of all property transactions in the Iberian nation were managed by international clients. The British and French continue to be the main buyers in the Portuguese property market, with Brazilians showing an increasing interest also.

Within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, the demand for office space is increasing despite the trend toward working from home over the pandemic. However, demand is focusing on openspace offices more conducive to larger gatherings of employees, often with dedicated video meeting rooms.

Indeed, since the pandemic, the health and

wellbeing of employees is turning into a priority for many companies, affecting the design of the spaces where business is carried out.

At the end of January 2022, the office market in Lisbon had a take-up volume of approximately 13,300sqm, a radical increase when compared to January 2021. In Porto, the total take-up volume related to the office market was 2,359sqm, registering a decrease of 66% if compared to the same period in 2021. In 2021, the office market of Portugal’s second city closed the year with 5% growth compared to 2020. Despite a remarkably different rate of recovery from the trends of Lisbon, general forecasts for 2022 remain optimistic. The growth of activity n several segments, including health, logistics, and energy might generate more dynamic demand in Porto going forward.

In terms of hotel supply, more than 60 new relevant units entered the market in 2021, above the number registered in the previous year. Analyzing the current trends, in 2022 tourism is expected to maintain its gradual trajectory of recovery, with some of its main indicators already scoring YoY growth. ✖

HOUSING PRICE CHANGE IN PORTUGAL OVER 10 YEARS COMPARED TO EUROPE

SOURCE: GPG Iceland  157.33%

70.02%

Czechia  67.54%

Norway  62.91% Latvia  60.98% UK  60.26% Poland  50.65%

Denmark  40.3%

Belgium  32.43%

BUILDING PERMITS ISSUED (2015=100)

SOURCE: EUROSTAT

Image: joyfull

facing A NEW FUTURE

PTPC is an active agent in the promotion of innovation and competitiveness in the construction sector.

Can you elaborate on the operations of PTPC?

PTPC’s mission is to implement R&D and innovation initiatives and projects promoting the cooperation between companies, R&D entities, associations, public and private entities from the construction and public works sector. Currently, it gathers more than 50 associates that represent the sector in all segments of its value chain (technical, technological, research and development). PTPC is the mirror association of the European Construction Technology Platform (ECTP), thus fostering new collaborations between the members of PTPC and other European entities. PTPC is the managing entity of Cluster AEC (architecture, engineering, and construction), recognized by Portuguese government.

Was the pandemic an obstacle or an opportunity for the Portuguese business community?

Just like other industries with the pandemic, we have learned to work in different ways, with more flexibility; however, almost all of the activities in the construction process are physical (onsite). Digitalization, and especially the adoption of building information modelling (BIM), opens the opportunity to spend more time in planning (off-site) and less time executing (on-site) so construction could be a more virtual activity. In addition, prefabrication and automation will reduce the demand for labor, which is hard to find.

How does PTPC innovate and apply the concept of innovation in its daily operations?

One great example of how PTPC innovates is the Rev@Construction—Digital Construction Revolution consortium,

DA CONSTRUÇÃO (PTPC)

a project led by Teixeira Duarte which includes two other major construction companies, Mota-Engil and Grupo Casais, and other construction and design companies, universities, RTO, and public entities, in a total of 20 members of PTPC, which will jointly cooperate in order to promote the digital transformation of the AEC sector. This mobilizing project will promote the “democratizing” of everyone’s access to digital methodologies in a movement never seen in the construction sector in Portugal. It will be developing tools and a platform that standardize and systematize rules for digitization; applications for the digitization of construction processes; development of the Digital Twin concept in the construction and facility management; tools and a platform that will standardize and systematize a set of rules, which are essential to reach the desired level of digitization in design, tender, construction, and operation; digital applications representing the construction and operation specialties, which allow considerable gains in productivity (517%). The Digital Twin developments will allow framing of the principles of energy efficiency and circular construction, being a powerful support tool for lifecycle analysis and benefit-cost analysis, as well as for maintenance and asset management activities

What are the expansion plans of PTPC?

The most important thing is to intensify the activity of Built CoLAB, our technical team of more than 25 high qualified human resources for innovation. This year, we will create a digital innovation hub focused on contributing to the twin transition of

construction, according to the European Commission strategy for the Digital Europe Program and supported by competence and skill creation; innovation ecosystem and networking; support to find investment; and allow SMEs and Public Administration Entities to test before investing. DIGITALbuilt’s general objectives are the digital capacitation and inclusion of the built environment agents involved in the construction, mineral resources, and railway sectors.

What are your targets for 2022 and your medium-term outlook?

To face the huge challenge of the twin transition (digital and ecological) in construction, the main trends are, in the short to midterm, the digitalization automation (re-industrialization) to increase productivity within the construction industry and at the same time working on proceedings, mechanisms, and measures to promote ecological performance. In the long term, we need to fully integrate the principles of circularity so that new buildings should be designed for deconstruction and reuse. For that, we need to develop adequate standardization, create materials passports, and with the digital twin we will have the traceability of these construction components that will be the “gold for tomorrow” for construction. ✖

BIO

Rita Moura PRESIDENT, PLATAFORMA TECNOLÓGICA PORTUGUESA

Rita Moura is President of the Plataforma Tecnológica Portuguesa da Construçao (PTPC) and Cluster AEC & Head of R&D Teixeira Duarte Engenharia e Construçoes, S.A.

QUALITY of life

Avenue is a residential and offices developer founded in 2015 with a portfolio investment of more than EUR605 million.

Aniceto Viegas CEO, AVENUE

What is the focus of your activity, and what projects are you currently working on?

The focus of Avenue’s activity is the real estate development, acting mainly in residential and offices sector, in Lisbon and in Porto, that has become a new and appealing market. Currently, we are developing approximately 70,000sqm, in both cities. In the beginning of our activity, we were focused on the redevelopment of historical buildings. In 2017, we decided to increase our activity in the offices sector due to a lack of demand and to the scarcity of good office spaces. That is why we developed Exeo, our flagship in terms of upscaling. EXEO Office Campus has a strategic and central position on the eastern shore of the Lisbon. It has state-of-the-art facilities with a contemporary design including leisure and retail spaces, restaurants, and green areas. Inspired by the concept of well-being and flexibility, the three buildings, Aura, Lumnia, and Echo, reflect these themes. We have completed the first and largest building, Lumnia. The other two buildings, Echo and Aura, are under construction but were sold to BNP Paribas in April 2022.

How many projects do you have today in residential and how many in corporate?

We have completed seven residential developments between 2015 and 2020, and all are 100% sold. Lumnia was completed a few months ago. Currently, under construction, we have five developments: three in Lisbon (two office developments and one residential) and two in Porto (both residential).

How do you shape your competitive advantage in such a small and dynamic market?

market turned out to reveal better yields from the client’s investment perspective. At the same time, we looked into the office segment. We realized we could anticipate demand by doing excellent quality developments. We also invested in retail, although it is a complementary activity, as our main strategic focus is on residential and offices. We are now working on having residential offers to lease and to sell focusing more on the local demand and less dependent on the international market.

Limiting and containing the environmental impact is turning into a priority for every business. How do you apply to your projects?

BIO

With more than 25 years of professional experience in real estate development and investment, Aniceto Viegas began his career at Constructa in 1994. After that, he worked in several renowned companies, such Nexity, Bouygues Immobilier Spain and Portugal as general manager and at ES Property as a board member. Currently, he is CEO of Avenue.

There are approximately 20 relevant players in the market. We think that the competition has been stable over the last years. Since the beginning, we always wanted to focus on demand. When we started in 2015, we noticed interest from both local clients as well as international clients in the high-end residential segment and in city center locations. That is why we developed our activity mainly in the premium residential segment. At that point, we decided to invest in Porto as well, because there was less competition in a context where new demand is increasing, and this

Sustainability is a pivotal aspect of our approach to the way we think and implement new projects. We need to be sustainable in the way we build. To achieve that sustainability and, furthermore, neutrality, it is critical to have reliable suppliers, compensating every single step of the construction process. We make sure that the buildings that we create will be efficient not only during the construction process, but also when in operation. Exeo is a good example of that approach. We worked hard on the concept of the building, and we considered all the details. The architecture of the buildings was designed to benefit from the sun’s exposure and to collect rainwater, which is then recycled to irrigate the gardens, just to mention some of the sustainable measures that were implemented.

What are your main objectives for 2022?

In 2022, we intend to continue the developments in progress and reinforce our commitment with additional investment in new opportunities in both residential and offices. Alternative segments can also be considered. Sustainability will be a priority in the agenda for 2022 and for the future. ✖

“Sustainability is a pivotal aspect of our approach to the way we think and implement new projects.”

LISBON REAL ESTATE

Lisbon is fast becoming a hotspot for real estate investment with its attractive prices, modern infrastructure, vibrant cultural history, and numerous recently launched redevelopment projects.

POPULATION (METROPOLITAN AREA)

2.8 MILLION

AVERAGE YEARLY RENTAL RETURNS

4-7% GROSS

POPULATION DENSITY

948 PER SQKM

DISTRICTS WITH STRONG POTENTIAL (EUR2,800-EUR4,500 PER SQM)

GRAÇA CAMPO SANTANA INTENDENTE

MOST EXPENSIVE DISTRICTS (EUR4,000-EUR7,000 PER SQM)

ESTRELA/LAPA RESTELO/BELEM CHIADO PRINCIPE REAL

STABLE DISTRICTS (EUR3,000-EUR5,750 PER SQM)

ALFAMA ALCANTARA SALDANHA CAMPO DE OURIQUE AVENIDAS NOVAS

SOURCE: TAGUS PROPERTY

Helder Pereira Coelho CEO, TOTE SER

How does TOTE SER distinguish itself from its competition in the real estate and construction sector?

SETTING the bar

To use the most viable options, TOTE SER develops projects in line with the highest international standards while maintaining a strong Portuguese component and using mainly local materials.

BIO

Helder Pereira Coelho began his academic career in business management, followed by a degree in architecture. He was connected to HCI Construções S.A., where he followed all its major works, from architectural projects to construction management. At HCI, he was directly linked to national and international projects, taking part in the reconstruction of some buildings in Chiado after the 1988 fire. In the 1990s, he created Architecture TOTE SER to manage and add value in a park of real estate assets of national and foreign investors/owners. In 2005, he attended the 31st PADE at AESE Business School.

TOTE SER is a different architecture company. We are a company focused on real estate assets, adaptable and flexible. With 30 years of experience, and having been through two real estate crises, we have acquired great expertise and know-how. We have created a platform that attracts people for new investments (pools of investors). Our mission is to create spaces that provide quality of life, both for the user and the investor. The greater the user’s well-being, the greater the investor’s profitability, integrating aesthetics, comfort, and functionality. Our goal is to optimize both spaces and investment resources, establishing partnerships with architecture studios for specific projects for real estate investment. We have a lot of experience working with large surface areas, targeted for those with high purchasing power. We present the business opportunity to investors and then carry out an architectural project with contained costs but of very high quality, working as well on the construction and commercialization of the projects. In the majority of the projects we carry out, we are also co-investors, ensuring optimal results since we receive profits from that project as well. TOTE SER also handles rehabilitation and renovation projects. We started with reconstruction projects to restore the Chiado area affected by the great fire and continued from there. We currently have many projects for the renovation in Principe Real, Graça, Lapa: these are all old and beautiful areas of the city that are on the radar of big investors.

How are you positioned to capitalize on Portugal’s burgeoning tourism and hospitality sectors?

We are focused on real estate in tourism. We have a specific project in Algarve, an anti-aging condo with a hospital of around 22,000sqm, which is big. The project we are working on has 187 beds. This is an ecological undertaking, totally autonomous in terms of energy consumption. It has a photovoltaic farm that powers

the entire project which covers an area of something around 124ha. The project will be characterized by a four- or five-star hotel with 14,750sqm, integrated by an apartment hotel of 6,000sqm. In total we have 77,000sqm, with an overall investment of EUR251 million.

What emphasis are you placing on the concept of sustainability, and how is it applied to your project?

We like the idea of creating projects in line with the best international standards but maintaining a strong local component. We build using mainly local materials, as well as applying natural recycled raw materials. Speaking of our Algarve project, we have a special golf course that uses ecological water resources, an optimal resource use for the maintenance of the golf course. To optimize our ecological imprint, we established a strategic alliance with a French architecture studio that is specialized in high-level ecological projects with BRIM certification. For us, each project and each undertaking are an opportunity to search for the best viable solutions. We also work with renowned ateliers to guarantee that all architects that collaborate with us have the necessary professional experience and that are better adapted to the characteristics of each project, with this being another optimization factor. For each venture, we create a team with architects and engineers, overseen by in-house TOTE SER smaller team, to handle every single phase of the project, with a focus on sustainability from the planning phase.

Can you anticipate your short-term objectives? We want to guide our projects by the eco co-working co-living model. The idea is to create the first of these models, with high-quality and ecologically responsible projects. We want to focus on ecology that promotes high quality within and outside of the city as well as to continue to add value and high profitability to our patrimony. At this moment, we will continue to focus on work in Lisbon, close to Lisbon and in Algarve, while at the same time surveying other areas of the country. ✖

JUST LIKE NEW

ONCE THE HEART OF A MIGHTY MARITIME EMPIRE, Lisbon is now a very different city. It is a laidback metropolitan of roughly 3 million people with fine architecture, old-fashioned shops and cafés, and trams that crisscross the city center. Despite being a charming city with high standards of living, Lisbon is definitely in need of rehabilitation to keep up with its role as an important metropolitan area. Lisbon is a major financial center, with the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) classifying it as an alpha-level global city.

An overhaul of Lisbon should at least upgrade the city’s public infrastructure, facilitate moving about the city, and begin the construction of modern and affordable housing in Área Metropolitana de Lisboa. All this will require investment. Starting around 2016, a number of investment schemes helped the city gradually upgrade its outdated infrastructure. In 2016, for example, the European Investment Bank (EIB) announced that Lisbon would be the recipient of its first EUR100-million loan under the Investment Plan for Europe “to contribute to the urban regeneration of the city and to support its long-term growth.” The municipality of Lisbon and EIB were determined that the investment plan must promote social inclusion and sustainability. To this end, the municipality set out

to upgrade streets and roads, rehabilitate public arenas across the city, launch bike-sharing stations, promote greenification initiatives, and fight urban decay, among other things.

“The EIB investment in Portugal will have visible and tangible benefits for the citizens of Lisbon today but also for future generations, such as providing a solution for the recurrent floods or supporting the modernization of the city’s infrastructure,” said EIB vice president at the time. The memento created by the joint investment plan encouraged other investors, as well. Starting in 2016, a dozen large scale projects were finalized with over EUR600 million of investment and the mobilization of EUR2 billion.

However, by the early 2020 and the beginning of the pandemic, several investment programs began to slowdown, only to pick up in the late 2021. In 2022, more urban development projects are receiving funding. The rehabilitation of Parque das Nações area in Lisbon, with the price tag of EUR30 million, was recently approved by the city’s municipal assembly. Parque das Nações is a good exemplar of urban rehabilitation in Lisbon. The neighborhood was the site of Expo 98 and later turned into a cluster of concert pavilions, restaurants, and bars. The riverside neighborhood is easily accessible from the city center by metro and city buses. ✖

The ancient city of Lisbon is going through yet another phase of transformation, adapting itself to the realities of the 2020s.

The urban rehabilitation of Lisbon

LOCAL REAL ESTATE PLAYERS

Portugal is now seeing a new breed of more sophisticated and financially savvy developers seeking to better attract international buyers to invest in their projects.

ODEON PROPERTIES develops diverse and unique real estate projects in prime or strategic locations in and around Lisbon. Each project is led by excellent architects that focus on preserving the culture of each asset, while using high quality products. This is a winning strategy for sustainability and exposure. From a historical theater transformation into a large restaurant and luxury apartments to large city center villa-homes, Odeon Properties projects and concepts standout for themselves. The Odeon historical theater from the 1920s was also the inspiration project that led to the company’s name. This one-of-a-kind real estate asset was carefully thought out and planned to include the refurbishment of the façade. Despite the apartment units being spacious and modern, the 900 square meter restaurant will incorporate the very essence of the historical building through the refurbishment of the original 24-m high column and pediment.

IN MELIDES, we are currently developing a project called Utopia that perfectly melds the concepts of integration, valorization, and sustainability; Utopia emphasizes its natural surroundings as it shapes a new natural and social ecosystem that is stable, balanced and self-sufficient. We have also formed a collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to establish a more sustainable construction technique. Utopia will be a reference point within the industry. For this project, we will be taking into consideration the local ecosystem, from concept to construction. We have involved a team of both national and international architects to design the 230 houses that will make up Utopia. It is a project whose strategic orientation is based on principles and factors. Concepts such as comfort, sophistication combined with innovation, energy efficiency, and differentiation of design will form the starting point of the complex.

SINCE THE BEGINNING, what differentiates us is that we design homes for people to live in. We focus on taking our time and investing heavily to design our properties. As we start doing the layout, from design and even all the way to construction, we always look at how we can improve properties, even after they are sold. Fortunately, we have been selling well; our biggest problem is that everything has been sold. Our base of investors is different from our competition. Many of them have big corporations behind them, while we do not. All our investors are individuals. We started with a group of three or four, and we now have around 12 diverse investors from the UK, Germany, Poland, Hong Kong, Macau, Brazil, South Africa, Turkey, and Portugal. It is an interesting and diverse group. We are here for the long term and currently have plans and goals to buy two projects in the next two years. We are looking for projects in the range of 7,000-15,000sqm in the Lisbon area.

OUR MAJOR competitive advantage is our investment management capabilities and the way we approach and monitor our real estate projects. We are careful with the concept and the quality of the product, and we always keep in mind that we are a private equity real estate firm, managing investments with strict investment criteria. That is a different mindset from the typical developer. We earn the trust of our investors by delivering strong, risk adjusted returns, focusing on IRR. We build, execute and manage strong investment cases. Bondstone delivers this by merging a team of highly sophisticated investment professionals with a quantitative mindset with a team of solid and capable project managers from construction and engineering backgrounds. We speak the same language of our investors while delivering investment projects that cater to very specific investment constraints.

Julien Dufour MANAGING PARTNER, ODEON PROPERTIES

Joaquim da Silva Lico CEO, VOGUE HOMES

Eduardo Kol Netto de Almeida CEO, LANTIA

Antonio Pereira Dias CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER & CFO, BONDSTONE

BIO Sérgio Ferreira is chairman of the board of Coporgest, a company he founded in 2004 that develops luxury housing projects in Lisbon. In 2012, Ferreira created, within Coporgest, the Lisbon Best Apartments brand. He has a degree in management from Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão (ISEG) in Lisbon and a postgraduate degree in taxation (2003) and another in real estate management and finance. He also attended a master’s of business strategy.

Sérgio Ferreira FOUNDER & CEO, COPORGEST & CEO, LISBON BEST APARTMENTS

What have been the highlights and milestones of the company since its inception in 2004? Since our foundation back in 2004, and until 2012, we operated only as developer of highend residential projects in city center prime locations. Right from the start, I decided to hire an internal team of architects and project managers to give me full control of the licensing process and control the quality of works during the construction process. This allowed us to reach a level of experience and knowledge quite distant from most of our competitors, who usually hire external architect and management team to take care of their projects. In 2012, we decided to create an internal team to develop our short term rental business unit, with our brand Lisbon Best Apartments, and since then our operation has grown with enormous success: currently, we successfully manage 45 apartments,

the majority of which belong to Coporgest. Later, we started a project of a five-star hotel in Chiado that I expect to open in 2023. More recently, we invested in a magnificent location in Comporta: a property in two minutes away from the beach that will include 71 apartments, 37 villas, and a five-star hotel with 58 rooms and suites.

How does the company shape its competitive advantages in a market characterized by fierce competition?

Our quality of construction has reached a level that is difficult to achieve for most of our competitors. For example, we invest heavily in noise insulation systems, thermic materials, and highly efficient heating solutions, which are extremely important for the final quality of an apartment. We have also learned how to accelerate our production process. For example, our latest investment in Lisbon, in Rua Sousa Martins, was purchased in January 2022, and construction started on June 1. Most of our competitors are miles away from this kind of capacity and concerns, and the fact that I have my internal teams has given us the possibility of accumulating knowledge and skills that are not easy to find among the competition. ✖

Filipe Ferreira METROPOLITAN SECRETARY, LISBON METROPOLITAN AREA (AML)

BIO Filipe Ferreira holds an MA in economics and public policies. He has worked in several municipalities from AML in Social Cohesion, International Relations, and EU projects. Since 2014, he has been with AML as Metropolitan Secretary. He was co-coordinator of the AML 2030 regional strategy and AML Metropolitan Plan to Support Deprived Communities. He is AML’s focal point regarding ESPON METRO consortium and the Metropolitan Network of Agrifood Parks.

Can you elaborate on AML’s significance in Lisbon? AML is an inter-municipal entity that represents 18 municipalities from the Lisbon metropolitan area. In our metropolitan area, there are almost 3 million people who represent 30% of the Portuguese population and more than 30% of Portugal GDP. We are the most important Portuguese region in terms of contribution to GDP. We are the only region on the Portuguese mainland that is a developed region according to EU Cohesion Policy: we attract many tourists and a large number of economic enterprise and economic sectors. At AML, our main drivers are in three different sectors: mobility and transportation, climate action, and territorial planning.

Lisbon was the 2020 European Green Capital Award winner. What projects do you have in your pipeline to reaffirm AML as a leading player in the field of sustainability?

Our second great driver focuses on climate action and sustainability; we are among the first ones in Portugal to develop a metropolitan plan regarding climate change adaptation. We worked with the central government, municipalities, NGOs, and Lisbon University, among many others, to draw up that plan and have identified the key pillars of action that will underpin the strategy related to the sustainability of Lisbon Metropolitan Area. And now, we are identifying forms of financing for that project. We are working to renew the fleet of buses circulating within our municipalities that will be more technologically advanced and have lower emissions. We are now coordinating series of activities focused on the theme of food security and agri-food parks; we want to rethink our approach to food consumption. We are designing a framework to optimize the production, consumption, and distribution of food in all the schools operating in our municipalities. We are also developing a project with territorial stakeholders with the goal to support local producers, stimulate the central government, gather nutritionists, design new meals, create sustainable packaging, and educate the community of students about the concept of sustainable consumption. ✖

BUILDING up expertise

With strong property management expertise, CBRE has become a one-stop shop for our clients investing in real estate investment.

Francisco Horta e Costa MANAGING DIRECTOR, CBRE

Where is demand in real estate coming from? Investors are coming from everywhere; we have investors across the entire risk curve, including those who want to do development and others that want a standing investment. We can see eight to 12 bids for a product going into the market. And we are not talking about small volumes as well. We are currently marketing a portfolio of 20 warehouses of around EUR190 million, and we have received 12 offers. That is the potential of those who want to invest in Portugal. We have seen this in several other situations over the year. At the end of 2021, we sold a property fund of seven hospitals, the largest healthcare/real estate deal in Portugal. The buyer was French, and we had seven offers. We started in early October and closed the deal before the end of the year. We sold 4,400 apartments in a residential deal worth about EUR330 million. We were more cautious at the start of 2021, having estimated that recovery would be slower. However, we quickly realized investors were back on track and wanted to find the right opportunities and invest.

How do you shape your competitive advantage to maintain your leadership in the local market?

our strengths, which none of our competitors have. We have one thing that is gold: data. We can play with that data in favor of our clients and benchmark their assets against a wider portfolio. We can bring synergy and efficiency by being managers of such a huge portfolio. We have merged our business with Spain a few years ago. We have an integrated property management team that we call the Property Management Iberian Platform. In capital advisors, we do equity raising, M&A, joint ventures, and debt advisory. We bring the loans for our clients’ financing here. We also have a strategic advisory team to help our clients with important real estate decisions before they go ahead with their projects. We also have a growing team on ESG, one of our strategic growth pillars.

What are the short-term targets and focuses on your agenda?

BIO

Francisco Horta e Costa has been CBRE Portugal’s Managing Director since 2012. Following a brief experience at Citibank, he worked for Agroman/Ferrovial as head of treasury. In 1998, he joined CBRE where he spent 10 years managing two real estate investment funds, as well as overlooking the investment area for seven years. In 2008, he joined Norfin-Sociedade Gestora de Fundos de Investimento Imobiliário as commercial and international director and also manager of the company in Spain. In 2009, he returned to CBRE as senior director with responsibilities across different areas related with institutional investors. Between 2016 and 2018, he was chairman of the Urban Land Institute (ULI).

First, we are a one-stop shop for our clients. We provide services across the entire cycle of the product. We have excellent teams that can take care of those investments for our clients. After they invest, there is always a great deal of work to do in the properties, and locally we have a strong property management business. This is one of our strongest selling points. As of April, we will manage 18 shopping centers and retail parks. We manage more than 1 million sqm of logistics with nearly 70 office buildings. We also keep a constant eye on the products we support to sell or buy, so this enables us to be close to the client and the asset during the investment period. Throughout this period, we bring our project management and advisory teams. Capital advisors is another one of

In Portugal, the multi-family product does not yet exist. This trend is definitely coming to Portugal. There is a new generation with a different mindset, and it is also getting more difficult to get a loan for a mortgage. There are lower LTBs and shorter mortgage periods. Therefore, it is becoming more expensive. People will need to shift to the leasing market. ESG and living are our focus areas for next year. In terms of strategy, ESG is still our priority. Our team is overwhelmed by requests from clients; it is a tsunami. Portugal, as always, is sometime slower in adapting to new things. In the future, clients will not be able to go to a building that is not ESG compliant. We currently have about 230 people doing an ESG Cambridge program for eight weeks; we really want to be on track with the ESG world. ✖

“We manage more than 1 million sqm of logistics with nearly 70 office buildings.”

INTERNATIONAL REAL ESTATE

With such a diverse group of investors in the local real estate sector, these companies help interested parties navigate the different opportunities offered in the country.

PL We know what developers are looking for, and we help them buy the projects and define the product. We know what market to approach. We know where demand comes from and what the market is seeking. This is a great competitive advantage. We are part of a multinational company that is present in more than 80 countries. We can predict trends and anticipate what the world is bringing to a small country such as Portugal. We are a commercial real estate company, though we are also present in the residential space, and today there are no investors looking at commercial spaces that does not also want to invest in residential.

J-GM Engel & Völkers has been in the market for more than 40 years and has built a strong brand and global network which is one of the main competitive advantages we have. This allows us to take advantage of the synergies within the company to be able to provide the best service to our most demanding customers and maintain our high quality standards that position us as a brand of recognized prestige. Now with the arrival of the Permira fund, and its ambitious growth objectives, we are going to take an even greater technological leap in order to continue to always be one step ahead

PEDRO LANCASTRE We had a great 2021; in terms of revenue, it was our best year ever. Despite the pandemic and the uncertainty, we are going through, our gross revenue was 5% above 2019. We are continuing to grow, and it has been 25 years of great successes. Today, we have 363 people working in 360 degrees in the real estate industry, from commercial real estate to residential. We started by acquiring a small company that was 100% dedicated to retail, and we grew naturally, going from retail to office to the industrial sector. We are a one-stop shop within the industry. We cover all areas of real estate, including designing interiors from retail and offices to malls, hotels and cinemas. Over the years, we have successfully expanded our operations to the hospitality and hotel industry as well. We have a dedicated team for hotels, not only in Portugal but also around the world, and we have participated in transactions to help operators find spaces or redefine, reshape, or reconstruct their hotels.

JUAN-GALO MACIÀ For over 40 years now, Engel & Völkers has specialized in

the brokerage of premium residential property, commercial real estate, yachts, and aircraft. As a leading global service company, we currently operate in over 900 locations in more than 30 countries spanning five continents. Currently we have around 16,000 people operating under the Engel & Völkers brand worldwide, and one of our expansion goals is to reach 20,000 in the next few years. Our proven business model, which consists of the well-established pillars of the market center concept and the franchise business, provides the optimal leverage to further expand our business. 2021 was a historic year, as the company exceeded EUR1,000 million in group fee income. We were able to improve and overcome barriers. With regard to Portugal, we had the highest turnover in history, with more than EUR168 million in brokerage volume of premium properties. Engel & Völkers firmly believes in the potential of the Portuguese market and has been investing significantly in the training of consultants, technological development, and the growth of the franchise network in the premium segment, now having national coverage.

How do you shape your competitive advantages?

What specific segment drives the growth of the company?

PL In general, all segments are growing equally. All sectors in the occupancy, investment, residential grew significantly in the last five years. In our case, in 2021 residential grew more. Residential has been constantly growing for the past four to five years, and in 2022 we still see great potential to continue to grow further here. We opened shops in 2021 in several areas, including Cascais, Algarve, and Porto. Our geographical expansion is aligned with the business volume of the company.

What consolidation and expansion plans does the company have?

J-GM Engel & Völkers is strongly positioned around the globe to continue its course of expansion in 2022: The Group’s proven business model, which consists of the well-established pillars of the Market Center concept and the franchise business, will be expanded further. The growing number of experts working around the world under the Engel & Völkers brand is reflective of the attractiveness of the company. In 2021, more than 90 new shops opened worldwide. ✖

Pedro Lancastre CEO, JLL PORTUGAL

Juan-Galo Macià CEO, ENGEL & VÖLKERS SPAIN, PORTUGAL & ANDORRA

Can you elaborate on the company’s development in the last few years?

André Caiado CEO & OWNER, CONTACTO ATLÂNTICO ARQUITECTOS

You declare that your architecture is at the same time global and local. Can you elaborate on this statement?

Most of our clients are international. We work for Americans, Central Americans, Southern Americans, Chinese, Asians, and Europeans. We have clients across vastly different scopes. When we intervene in little town or in a greenfield area, we always design according to the situation there. We also work to ensure repeat clients. Happiness comes from viewing beautiful objects, and creating beautiful projects enables us to do our bit here as well.

What are your goals for 2022?

Our main objective is to maintain the development of the technological part of the office, which guarantees the quality of our projects. Furthermore, we want to continue to develop beautiful buildings that use limited capacity of additional energy. We want our buildings to operate with the energy they produce themselves. For example, when constructing apartment buildings for lower-income families, by ensuring the proper insulation on the outside and using double-glazed windows, two things will happen. Children study better and have better results in school, and the elderly residents are healthier. In difficult times, the first thing to go is the energy, which results in people suffering in cold homes. These are just some of the things we would like to continue doing as well as we can and excelling ourselves. Being part of this company that has remained supportive to spread such knowledge is also important because it ensures a higher quality of work overall.

Miguel Campos ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR AURA REE

How did the company perform in 2021?

2021 was a positive year for us as the market picked up where it left off before the pandemic began. It is not new that COVID-19 had a strong impact on all of our lives and has halted all sectors all over the world and the real estate sector was no exception. When the lockdowns began, all projects were suspended, and there were some months with reduced activity in the market. 2021 presented itself as a good opportunity. Some projects that were suspended returned to the market and also a few others made 2021 a positive year, with several new challenges as a result of the pandemic.

How does Aura innovate and apply the concept of innovation in its daily operations?

Our main innovation was the creation of our proprietary and internal platform GURU in 2013, which is an easy-to-use platform for valuations, with access to over 125 million geolocated assets over all the countries. We have been collecting data for almost 10 years, and this gives us a solid overall picture of the market. Later, we developed a new platform, Brainsre, to give our clients access to all this information. There are also other features such as the portfolio management tool, which allows them to upload portfolios of assets and combine them with local data, compare portfolios, extract dynamic stratification reports, and so on. I see these two tools as our best innovations, and we are lucky to have them daily at hand.

Francisco Reganha COUNTRY MANAGER, ALUGA SEGURO

What is the potential of build-torent in Portugal?

Such initiatives are starting in Europe; we already see this in Spain. In Portugal, it is a new concept that is not advancing as much as it could because of the tax issues. Portugal continues to be a stable country on a political level and a safe country to invest in. Many foreigners have invested in Portugal not only because of the golden visa and citizenship but also because they are seeking a profitable investment. In the build-to-rent segment, we have Europeans, French, and Spanish invested in Portugal. However, it is not enough. We can improve by creating better conditions for these people to invest in Portugal with more profitability.

Carlos Gonçalves CEO, AVILA SPACES

Avila Spaces is the most awarded business work space in Portugal. What led to this success?

We have been in the business for 18 years. We started to have greater visibility when we launched the first virtual office app in the world in 2011. It was called myOffice app, and today it is called Avila Connect. In addition to the investment in technology and innovations, we also decided to be a networking center more than just a workspace and organize events for our 1,000 members. We invite our members to share knowledge and create opportunities for strategies and partnerships. We also discussed the idea of a new co-working concept for not only individuals, but also companies. This space provides technology with free video conference and facilities with all the perks included in the rent. This business model is truly different from other co-working centers. All these are likely the reasons why we were awarded best co-working space in Portugal.

What is your main priority for 2022-23?

Our priority is to focus on our business in Lisbon because we are still in a pandemic. People talk about the post-COVID-19 era, but it is still ongoing, and we have to be prudent. We invested EUR500,000 into this 640-sqm space. Our main goal for 2022 is to continue with our activities and possibly expand in 2023. There are still opportunities to grow in Lisbon, which is why we have decided not to expand into Porto just yet.

What is your main target for the year?

We want to consolidate our presence in Lisbon and open in Oporto. This needs to be done gradually because our business is not only commercial. Behind it, there is an operative structure that needs the capacity to respond immediately. We handle risks. We are a real estate company, though behind this, there needs to be rigorous risk management. With every new rental contract that we make, we are taking risks. If we accepted all the tenants and flats in Portugal, we would rent 100 new flats per month. In Spain, we have a portfolio of 16,000 active flats, and every month, tenants move in and out of them. Every month, we sign 800 new rental contracts. We know we need 1,000 flats per year, and in Portugal, we will hit this target. Our mid-term objective is to have our legal team and our insurance providers in Portugal.

WE’RE IN BUSINESS

Business parks in Oeiras have played a fundamental role in making this municipality one of the most important economic centers in Portugal.

THE MUNICIPALITY OF OEIRAS has become one of the main economic centers of Portugal thanks largely to the presence of business parks of the highest quality that have encouraged the arrival of important international players. In total, there are 24,233 companies in Oeiras, located within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, including Sanofi, GSK, Pfizer, Volvo, Nissan, BMW, Cisco, BP, Nike, and Canon. And all this is supported by the Oeiras Valley project, which has the support of the city council of the municipality to create a unique innovation ecosystem in Portugal.

It is a place for these multinational companies to collaborate with science and technology laboratories to develop a fundamental innovation muscle for the diversification of the country’s economy in knowledge-intensive sectors. And all this development is supported by five business, science and technology parks that have the best possible equipment for the ecosystem to grow and develop. These parks are Agrotech Campus, Taguspark, Aquiparque, Lagoas Park, and Quinta da Fonte.

One of the most important business parks is Lagoas Park, with 100,000sqm of office space. It has 5,000 parking spaces, as well as a multitude of amenities such as a retail galley, a four-star hotel or kindergarten services. “All these services and amenities are in even greater demand as people return to work and businesses are looking for new space post covid and contribute to significantly to creating strong sense of community at Lagoas, which is important to us,” said Ana Isabel Costa Campos, general manager at Lagoas Park.

The impact of the pandemic has affected the global office rental business. The lockdowns enacted to stop the spread of the virus led to an increase in remote working; however, the end of the pandemic has reawakened interest in the added value of working in offices, as networking and a sense of community are fostered through events on a variety of topics such as sustainability. “We are set to resume the numerous events that were commonplace prior to the pandemic. We come together at senior management level to evaluate topics of interest common to all resident firms,” Campos said.

“In late 2021, early 2022, we have seen a revival in our business park in terms of occupancies, both existing and new, with existing tenants wanting more space on the back of a thriving business”, said Luis Rocha Antunes, Managing Director, Acacia Point Capital Advisors. Acacia, which owns the Quinta da Fonte business park since

2018, is also focused on creating a sense of community with which companies and workers feel comfortable and want to enjoy their time in the office.

“The challenge, therefore, is to create engagement. We want the community to contribute actively to our agenda and tell us what they want to do,” Antunes said. Con 21 edificios, Quinta da Fonte has 60 companies from 20 different countries, and most of them are focused on the technology and health industry. Some of them are large multi-nationals Amgen and Novo Nordisk, “We want to be a life sciences bloc,” Antunes said about the objective of Quinta da Fonte to establish itself as the reference for this type of industry within the Oeiras Valley.

It is common for each of the business parks in Oeiras to be focused on different economic sectors. The companies in Taguspark, for example, have an important technological component. In this park there are software producers, health, defense, or aerospace companies, for example. “Taguspark is a science and technology park that has university research centers, incubators for start-ups and different sizes of companies all working in fields based around science and technology,” said Eduardo Baptista Correia, CEO at Taguspark.

Talkdesk is one of the start-ups that has emerged from the Taguspark incubators, one of the oldest incubators in Portugal. Created by two students in 2021, Talkdesk has become the last Portuguese unicorn thanks to its cloud contact center software service that can work with a multitude of industries. There are currently almost 30 companies in the incubator, including the two technology start-ups Unicrowd and Pro-Drone. Unicrowd is a platform for data collection in processes with human participants to improve AI systems. Meanwhile, Pro-Drone is developing a technology to overhaul large energy infrastructures in autonomously operating drones.

“Our next move in terms of the incubator is to move into maritime defense technology,” said Correia during an interview with The Business Year. The expansion into this technological sector is due to the fact that, in its opinion, Portugal should be an important presence in terms of military, cable defense, space and security of European waters due to its geostrategic position. With the development of this new branch within the business park, Taguspark is supporting the economic diversification of the country by promoting high value-added sectors. ✖

BUSINESS PARKS

In a new world, business parks also focus more on the well-being of their tenants and on creating a welcoming and encouraging environment to spur innovation and cooperation.

IN LATE 2021, EARLY 2022, we saw a revival in our business park in terms of occupancies, both existing and new, with existing tenants wanting more space on the back of a thriving business. We see a general trend amongst our tenants to upgrade the quality of their facilities for their employees. As owners, we are continuing a program of investing in the park. We are about to start ESG certification to improve our carbon footprint and our ESG agenda. We have five pillars for the business park: parking, mobility, as well as amenities, such as a health club, restaurants, a pharmacy, a new gallery, a fruit shop, a beautician, and so on. The other two elements are the green agenda and community. We have rebranded from Quinta da Fonte Office Park to Quinta da Fonte Business Ecosystem. We want to be closer to our tenants and encourage them to make better use of the infrastructure, connect with each other more, and take advantage of our gardens and open areas and plan events there. We want it to be a lively, inspiring, and enjoyable park where one can have after-hours drinks with friends or come on the weekends to play with the family.

TAGUS PARK IS A science and technology park with university research centers, incubators for start-ups, and different sizes of companies all working in fields based around science and technology. We maintain an important relationship with the technical university, which is one of the important engineering facilities referenced not only in Portugal, but also Europe. We have been growing companies and many software producers for different industries such as health, defense, and aerospace. We create knowledge through research that we then spread throughout the university, and we use knowledge in this park to do business despite the size of the companies. We are close to our customers and have created the concept of community with people, companies, and organizations. We set goals and arrived with a statement of becoming the most civic park in Europe. We work hard to make sure we build a city with a focus on the quality of life so being here feels good. We have also created an Urban Art Museum with many sculptures. We have an interesting collection of art as well. We have tried to bring a positive vibe to people’s daily life in the workplace since we spend more time at our work than at home.

LAGOAS PARK IS THE MOST prominent business park in Portugal, comprising over 100,000sqm of office space. It has over 5,000 underground parking spaces on site, a retail gallery, a four-star hotel, a gym, a kindergarten, amongst other amenities. All these services and amenities are in even greater demand as people return to work and businesses are looking for new space post COVID-19 and contribute to significantly to creating strong sense of community at Lagoas, which is important to us. We are set to resume the numerous events that were commonplace prior to the pandemic. Events that were either dedicated to ESG, or to helping the community and the local neighborhood. We come together at senior management level to evaluate topics of interest common to all resident firms. This also provides ample opportunity for networking. Despite continuing to be one of the best and a benchmark office park in the Iberian Peninsula, it is essential for Lagoas Park to keep investing to update and reposition itself to remain at its position as reference in Portugal, aiming to maintain our high-end tenants which also have high standards when it comes to their office space and the overall experience the park can offer.

Luis Rocha Antunes MANAGING DIRECTOR, ACACIA POINT CAPITAL ADVISORS

Eduardo Baptista Correia CEO, TAGUS PARK

Ana Isabel Costa SENIOR PROPERTY MANAGER, CBRE & GENERAL MANAGER, LAGOAS PARK

competitive ADVANTAGES

Being part of a successful international group, TPF Consultores has the advantage of great diversity of specialization that it combines with modern tools to develop ambitious projects around the world.

Rui Fortes Monteiro EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, TPF - CONSULTORES DE ENGENHARIA E ARQUITETURA

How did the company perform in 2021, and what is the importance of Portugal within the global operations of TPF?

TPF Consultores, headquartered in Lisbon, is an engineering consulting company that was founded 42 years ago. It is well established in Portugal and is present in several international markets such as Algeria, Angola, Mozambique, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Macau, and East Timor. We ensure the fully integrated supply of engineering and architecture from design to project management and supervision. Nowadays, we have 350 employees, and our consolidated turnover in 2021 was EUR23 million. Some of the fields in which we operate include water and sanitation, agricultural development, energy, environment and special planning, dams, urban planning, complex buildings, industrial structures, bridges and viaducts, transport infrastructures, geotechnical and geologic projects, and hydraulics and water resources, just to name a few. Our head company is TPF Group, currently one of the 50 biggest international players, with branches in 44 countries and operations in more than 60 countries. It has a total of 4,000 employees and a global turnover of EU250 million. We have a solid performance in Portugal and in some of our overseas markets, especially Angola. We made many good deals and contracts that presently give us an excellent backlog for the coming years. We have contracts for 30 months of operation, which is impressive. In Portugal, we have a solid presence in the railway sector, and are now providing technical assistance for a significant contract of the line of Beira Alta, from Mangualde to Vilar Formoso. and have won, in consortium, a contract

for the expansion of the Linha de Cintura de Lisboa. We are also developing a consortium for the high-speed railway line to connect Porto and Lisbon. In addition, we are active in metro lines and are reviewing the design of the circular line of Lisbon Metro, that is under construction. We are supervising the metro network in Porto and preparing a consortium for a tender of the red line of the Lisbon metro, which will connect São Sebastião to Alcântara. In terms of supervision, we are doing the construction supervision of the drainage plan of Lisbon, which consists of two large tunnels to prevent the flooding of the city. We are also working on the supervision of the Hospital de Sintra and the Central Hospital of Madeira Island.

How do innovation and technology help TPF to shape its competitive advantages? We have a team that works specifically on innovation; we call it Center for Innovation and Technical Information and Communication (CITIC). It is an important aspect of our company. In terms of design, we have extensive experience in developing BIM projects for buildings as well as for infrastructures. We are now designing several hospitals in Angola only using BIM technology. We are acquiring a 3D printer for our most important projects and have also introduced the use of drones to supervise projects. Technology is not our only competitive advantage; we have solid and sound professional and corporate ethics. We also have technical knowledge combined with professional experience. The technical quality of our projects is one of our distinctive marks, and we are extremely proud to be known

for our excellent technical performance. Our other important features include the level of professional management in the company, our solid financial management, and the modern analytical tools that we use, some of which we developed in-house. We also have a great diversity of specialization, which is an important advantage in this market. Belonging to an international group also allows us to do work in different parts of the world. For example, in Brazil we are involved in several projects to evaluate the dam safety of mining facilities in partnership with TPF Engenharia (Brazil). Another example is a contract in India for a drainage plan in Mumbai with our company TPF India. We are also following interesting opportunities in Romania as well, mainly in roads and railways. ✖

BIO

Rui Fortes Monteiro began his professional career as a structural design engineer at Hidrotécnica Portuguesa, where he worked as deputy director of the hydroelectric schemes and special structures department. Later, he joined CENOR as manager and director of the hydroelectric schemes and special structures department. He was a board member from 2006-2016. With a professional experience of over 40 years in hydraulic structures, bridges, and viaducts, he has been one of TPF Consultores’ executive board member since 2017 and director of the designs and studies department.

CONSTRUCTION & ENGINEERING CONSULTANCIES

Economic recovery and the EU Next Generation funds are expected to bring a boost to construction, giving these companies greater confidence about future prospects.

SETH WAS FOUNDED IN 1933 by a Danish company. We are a Portuguese-based company that is still part of that international group, and the group utilizes Seth to indirectly operate in Africa. Seth is heavily African oriented, though it does not only confine itself to Portuguese countries. Our main shareholders come from countries that are active in and have a commitment to the development of African countries. Denmark is one of the few countries in the world that has complied with the UN’s target of compromising 1% of GDP in investment to underdeveloped countries. Because of that, we are an instrument of the group to implement those policies and execute related projects within the African countries. A main objective—being a Portuguese company—is to maintain our position in the local market, where we are mainly focused on infrastructure. We are looking into the possibility of penetrating other segments of the local markets. Within the group, we have the know-how and have developed systems and processes that can be used in unexploited areas in Portugal. That segment is off-site construction or modular construction, which is a relevant issue that can reshape the way that the industry evolves, and we are betting on that.

WE STARTED IN 2011, and our company began working not only in Portugal but also on the border of Spain, specifically Vila Nova. We later began working on other projects and started to grow as a company. We are now a multinational company, and we are a case being studied by Portuguese universities because we have always overcome our difficulties by working to provide solutions to the sector. If this year we were told the construction sector will focus on green energy, then PROCIFISC will focus on green energy. We are extremely flexible in our actions and constantly innovate because of the current circumstances and competitiveness. Prices are rising, so we have to look for other possibilities of business that can be adapted to the final goal of meeting the client’s needs, whether it is for construction, a project, certification, or a technical matter. The important thing is that when you offer a service to someone, it has to be satisfactory. Expansion, innovation, and internationalization are always present in our company. The importance is not where you are today but where you will be tomorrow. It is about having a different outlook and working with different ways of looking at things where you turn problems into solutions.

GAPRES STARTED IN 1973 and evolved gradually. First, we started essentially in the private sector, where we developed many projects for housing and office buildings, as well as for other specialized buildings such as hospitals and health centers. After a certain point, we also started working in the public sector on bridges and viaducts. Today, we cover all kinds of structural projects, except for dams, and all structural materials— reinforced concrete, pre-stressed concrete, steel, masonry, timber, and any other kind of structural material. We have worked in various international markets, such as Venezuela, Macau, Angola, Mozambique, Cap Verde, Morocco, and Georgia and count on our diversified portfolio. At a certain point, we also entered the industrial sector in terms of structural engineering. Our 50 years of work has been fairly diversified. We have built iconic buildings; for example, for Expo 1998, we designed the structure of the biggest building, the pavilions for the participating countries. Before, our business was 50% public and 50% private. However, in the last 10 years, this situation has changed, and public-sector activity is much smaller, about 15%. We hope that with the new recovery and resilience plan funding from the EU, some public projects will be restarted.

Ricardo Gomes CEO, SOCIEDADE DE EMPREITADAS E TRABALHOS HIDRÁULICOS (SETH)

Filipe Lourenço CEO, PROCIFISC

Eduardo Carvalho PRESIDENT, GAPRES

WE ARE NOT THE LARGEST project management company in Portugal, but we certainly are one the best. All of the major Lisbon projects are under Rockbuilding’s management. For example, we are working on a project on Avenida Republica called Entrecampos. We are also working on the development of an Execution Unit of the Praça de Sete Rios, a central area in Lisbon that will be completely rehabilitated with 260,000sqm of above-ground construction. We are also in the process of starting a 3,000ha property, 30km south of Lisbon, near the coastline, as well as other significant projects in Algarve. In addition, we are also managing an office building project near the Tagus River, in Alcântara, Lisbon with 40,000sqm. To be at the beginning of a project gives you a broader advantage in terms of definition of its use, commercial positioning, and so on. As a result, best use study is a term we use a lot in our preliminary approaches. It is knowing how to propose property owners to include the best use of offices, retail, and other commercial spaces in their projects, based on current market studies. Our primary consideration is what can be the most beneficial to the project and the surrounding community.

GESCONSULT WAS CREATED eight years ago by assembling a team of experts, mainly civil engineers with considerable experience in this area. Today, we are trying to create a department exclusively focused on sustainability, to extend technical support to our clients because what we see is that, at first, everyone wants their projects to be sustainable, but that is a world of infinite solutions. We apply innovation to every project we carry out, we limit the environmental impact of every project we execute, reducing waste, rethinking the way we construct and build, and ensuring the use of the most sustainable resources available, especially where the clients or developers aren’t aware of the best material or technical solutions. There is also a continuous process or training in that area, which is vital for our engineers to stay ahead in the game. When talking about technological development in construction, we also consider technical ways to construct because we note a rise in the prices of materials. Know-how is what differentiates us in the market. We are extremely efficient as we quickly process problems by swiftly accessing actionable information. Our human capital is well trained and constantly learning and we apply the latest technologies and solutions available in the market.

José Almeida Guerra PRESIDENT, ROCKBUILDING

Nuno Garcia CEO, GESCONSULT

EXTENSIVE know-how

Carbonell Figueras celebrates 30 years of operations in 2022, having established longstanding and solid relationships with clients all over the world due to the quality of its work.

Rogério Correia GENERAL DIRECTOR, CARBONELL FIGUERAS

What is the importance of Portugal for Carbonell Figueras?

Carbonell was invited by Ford to help build a factory—Auto Europa—in Portugal, and we have been in Portugal since then. Carbonell has a clear way of working: we can assist a client develop a EUR40-million project or something smaller. This has allowed us to establish solid relationships with different clients, and we are there for all their needs. We have maintained a relationship with Auto Europa for 30 years and with Coca-Cola for 25 years; we had a maintenance contract with Galp for the Sines Refinery that was initially for four years, later Galp renewed it for another three years due to quality of work we provided. We recently won a maintenance contract for the Repsol factory in Sines. Our biggest client in Portugal over the years has been Repsol, and it is perhaps the biggest client within the group, with many projects not only in Portugal but also in Spain, including maintenance and new projects. We have worked with Repsol in different markets including Peru and Panama. Today, 90% of the clients of Carbonell Figueras Portugal are also clients of Carbonell Figueras Spain, which means there is a great deal of interaction, integration, and mutual technical support when developing business. We recently helped finalize a Repsol plant in Cartagena, and that know-how will then be used for the construction of the plant here. Portuguese construction companies do not have the know-how or expertise to work with a company such as Repsol. This situation positions us in the market in a unique way.

companies that do this. For example, when we worked with Galp on a particular industrial project, we developed the entire structure. Galp had awarded the project to a different company, and we were brought in to finalize the project when that company could not. Even though the decision to build a large project comes down to numbers and costs, spending millions of euros can be risky when a company has to decide who to collaborate with. Every client has its own needs and issues, and this is what we do. For each client, we have a different way of working alongside a dedicated team.

What expansion opportunities does the Portuguese real estate sector offer Carbonell Figueras?

BIO

Rogério Correia has been General Director of Carbonell Figueras Portugal since 2019. Earlier, he was Carbonell Figueras’ quality, environment, health, and safety manager from 2007-2019, a safety coordinator consultant with SGS Portugal from 2005-2007, assistant manager at TUV Rheinland Portugal from 2002-2007, and shift bosssafety coordinator at Somincor from 1986-2002. He has master’s degrees in quality, environment, and safety as well as in work sociology from Universidade Técnica de Lisboa.

How do you establish yourself as a reliable player in a market saturated with competition? The market is increasingly competitive, so you have to become competitive. If a client wishes to build a certain project, almost all companies will offer prices in the same range; however, the differentiation lies in offering innovation to help a client achieve their goals. For industrial projects, the price does play a major role, but innovation is something that we start working along with clients, and there are not many

The Portuguese real estate sector is constantly growing, but only in specific locations, mainly Lisbon, Porto, and Algarve. The growth of the real estate and construction sector in Lisbon and the corresponding higher prices have made many people leave to surrounding suburbs, which has also led to increasing prices there as well. There are several types of real estate construction, one of which is high end, which is located at Baixa Lisboeta. Before COVID-19, when the real estate construction boom began in Lisbon, many companies saw an opportunity and moved fast to grab a slice of it. We only arrived later. For Carbonell, this is a new area, as our history is focused on the industrial sector. We come from a specific sector, which also allows us to bring our expertise and knowhow to this new sector. We just finished our first project, a small project at Baixa de Lisboa, and we are planning more. Expanding into the real estate sector is something we are planning but with a certain consideration. ✖

“For each client, we have a different way of working alongside a dedicated team.”

rethinking CONSTRUCTION

Berd is a revolutionary company and an international reference in the supply of modular bridges.

Can you elaborate on the inception, evolution, and main highlights achieved by your company?

Our company specializes in bridges and was established to bring to the market a new technology inspired by the human muscle. During my MSc, I studied natural structures such as shells, spider nets, and so on and identified the muscle as an incredible structural element. In my PhD thesis, I was focused in the muscle as a structural element and developed a system that reproduces the muscles to use in heavy construction. With my PhD thesis, I have won prizes in the field of structural engineering, attributed by FIB in Berlin in 2001. In that year, there were two best theses worldwide, one from Japan and mine. The research group celebrated an agreement with the industry and then conducted a pilot project. It was an incredible experience—it was the first time in the world that a heavy structure was dependent on software. There are jacks, which are the artificial muscles, there are cables, which are tendons, there are sensors which are the nerves and there is also a programmable logic controller (PLC), which is the brain. When there is a deformation, it “feels” the deformation and gives information to the PLC, and the jacks work, stressing the cables. That is how we created BERD, a small elite team of incredible engineers with great values and a can-do attitude. We had many investors, with interest perhaps six or seven times greater than the available shares. We immediately expanded to Spain and then to Czech Republic, Slovakia, Brazil, and so forth. Now, we have projects on five continents and five patents, one of which is

recognized in over 60 countries. We have expanded our operations and we have clients/projects in the US, Germany, France, Belgium, Slovakia, Czechia, Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, and Turkey.

Can you shed more light on your division that supplies modular bridges?

In 2016, we decided to invest in a new business area: modular steel bridges, which are bridges that can be assembled in one week or 10 days, and some in 2 or 3 weeks. It was a major success, especially in Peru. We also developed interesting projects in Mozambique and in Canada where we had recently another order. This concept of modular bridges was developed by a British engineer in World War II, and they have incredible design for the time and moment. All the pieces are the same type, like with Lego. Considering the present knowledge, we understood that they were a little large, with too much weight, because they were made to be assembled by people hand-force with almost no training. Our analysis of this is that it makes sense not to make all the pieces the same size and shape but optimize them and make value-added engineering. In Peru, we offered 2,000 tons less than the initial project and helped the government not only save USD5 million, but also minimized several hundreds of tons of CO2 emissions.

What are your key priorities for this year?

We started working on an innovative software that can calculate all the costs related to the construction of a bridge. We are on our way to bring to market a software as a service to serve the bridge

engineering worldwide community. We have made some calculations and come to the conclusion that this is a “jackpot” and will be much bigger than BERD. We are investing heavily on this, and for the last nine months we have been preparing the engineering knowledge. We already have people working on the software and closed an investment by a VC last year to accelerate this. The valuation of bridge intelligence—which is a sector with no activity and nothing sold so far— is predicted to be much bigger than the entire business of BERD. ✖

BIO

Pedro Pacheco is professor of bridges of the civil engineering department at the faculty of engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP). He graduated from FEUP in civil engineering, structures and did his master’s and PhD there as well. Among several national and international awards, his PhD thesis, “Organic PreStressing – an example of an effector system,” was recognized by Fédération Internationale du Béton in 2001. He is an author of dozens of scientific publications and is presently chairman of IABSE Commission 4 on bridge construction methods. He has been responsible for projects of more than 500,000sqm. He is President & CEO of BERD, a company he created in 2006. In 2016, he created BERD’s modular bridge solutions division, which has already supplied about 200 bridges.

Pedro Pacheco PRESIDENT & CEO, BERD

COVID-19 SNAPSHOT (AS OF JUNE 2022)

SOURCE: WHO

Total cases 4.8M

Deaths 23,411

Total doses given 24.1M

People fully vaccinated 8.8M

A masked woman pictured in Lisbon during the COVID-19 pandemic

Image: Elizaveta Galitckaia

HEALTH & HAPPINESS

Three coexisting systems make up the Portuguese healthcare landscape, namely the Servico Nacional de Saude (SNS), or “National Health Service,” special social health insurance schemes, used in the public sector on an occupational basis, and voluntary private health insurance.

Marta Temido, the Minister of Health, oversees the SNS. According to a report recently published by the EU Commission, Portugal’s spending per capita on health hit EUR2,314 and spending overall accounted for 9.5 % of GDP, slightly lower than the EU average of9.9%).

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Iberian nation to increase public spending on health. Indeed, the health budget was increased by EUR800 million in 2020, corresponding to a 6 % increase over the 2019 allocation.

The construction of new SNS hospitals and the improvement of existing facilities and equipment

is part of a new government plan. With these priorities set in the national agenda, the private sector is playing a pivotal role, supporting the transformation of the Portuguese healthcare industry.

As André Cabral, Head of Philips, said “[COVID-19] made us realize that technology can play a crucial role in helping structure the solutions and departments as they are set in the market; we understood that transformation can bring added value to everyone, from patients to staff, and to the cost of the system. We need to rethink the system, connecting hospitals effectively. We also need flexibility; an intensive care unit that can transform into two or three areas in one moment. The system needs to devise a completely new plan on how to structure patient flow, and to understand, through technology and informatics, how that same system needs to be managed from a resource-management perspective.” ✖

NEW path

The Ministry of Health outlines its commitment to improving the health of residents in Portugal under eight specific axes under the new budget while working to overcome challenges in the sector.

Marta Temido MINISTER OF HEALTH

AT the time of the discussion of the State Budget for 2022, I ended my speech by stating that we had no regrets about the path we had taken, but we knew there was still a long way to go. Recent times have reinforced that idea and made even more acute the urgency of strengthening the network of public services that, like the National Health Service, constitutes social protection for all people, regardless, for example, of their nationality, as is the case of 33,000 refugees from the war in Ukraine already enrolled in the National Health Service. They have made clearer the understanding of our interdependencies and common challenges that, like the shortage or migration of health professionals, constitute complex problems that require combined responses and broad commitments that we do not give up working to implement, because that is our responsibility to people.

It is, therefore, with this sense of urgency and responsibility to people that today I want to highlight three points in the State Budget proposal for 2022 in the area of health.

Health Service for the recovery of assistance activity was progressively revealed in all areas, while at the same time continuing to respond to the needs resulting from the pandemic, including the vaccination process, suffice it to recall that, at the end of December 2021, 88% of the population over 80 years old had already had their vaccination booster. These results were possible especially due to the investment in health professionals. In 2021, the NHS had about 148,000 professionals, a net increase of 24%, 28,454 more staff compared to December 2015 and an increase of 3,836 more staff compared to December 2020, one year earlier.

BIO

Marta Temido, the current health minister, was previously the deputy director of the Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and president of the executive board of the Administração Central do Sistema de Saúde, I.P. She holds a PhD in international health, health, and development policies from the Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and a master’s in management and health economics from Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra. She also holds a post-graduate degree in hospital management from Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa and a law degree from the Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Coimbra.

The first point relates to the recent path. After a year marked by the international health emergency, 2021 was the year in which the National Health Service began to recover. In fact, provisional data show an increase of more than 3 million medical consultations in primary healthcare compared to 2020 and more than 4 million compared to 2019. Hospital consultations grew by more than 1 million and surgeries by almost 130,000 compared to 2020, both of which were also above the values reached in 2019. Meanwhile, the provisional data for 2021 show that the special programs for recovering care activity postponed by the pandemic made it possible to carry out about 65,000 consultations, first hospital consultations, and 43,000 additional surgeries in this area alone in 2021. In the area of population-based cancer screening, the same provisional data show that the number of women screened for breast cancer and the number of those screened for colon and rectum cancer once again exceeded the 2019 figures, a clear indicator of recovery in access to preventive care.

The effort undertaken by the National

The second point concerns the allocation of the budget for health. Compared to last year’s initial budget, the initial budget for 2022 increases by an additional EUR700 million, 6.7%, a value above the expected growth in GDP. However, it increases even more if we consider that the execution of 2021 was marked by conjunctural pressures resulting from the fight against the pandemic, which are estimated at around EUR1.3 billion and that the reduction of these pressures will allow an increase in spending of 10%, compared to the provisional execution of 2021.

The Budget for 2022 reflects a choice that began in 2015 and that translates into an increase of more than EUR3.2 billion of investment in the sector. It is a choice that allowed the value of SNS arrears to register last year the lowest levels since consolidated data has existed. It is a choice for the strengthening of public health services.

The third and final point that I want to highlight in the State Budget proposal is the health path for 2022. This budget translates our commitment to improving the health of residents in Portugal.

The Recovery and Resilience Plan, with reforms and investments exceeding EUR1.3 billion, the new National Health Service Statute, with the full dedication regime, with executive management, with public participation in health, and the new National Health Plan for 2030, currently in the public consultation phase, pave the way for a set of measures focused on eight axes around which the strategy of the Government Program until 2026 is structured, with concrete measures for 2022.

First, I highlight the principle that health begins at home, that the greatest investment in health is the one we make in education, housing, decent work, and all the social determinants of health. Therefore, we will continue the work of the Priority Health Programs and the Healthy Neighborhoods Program.

Second, the principle that having the right to health means having access to the National Health Service, with measures to overcome financial barriers, cultural barriers, social and economic barriers. Here, from June onward, except for non-referred emergency services or those that do not lead to hospitalization, the charging of user fees will cease in all National Health Service services.

Third, the promotion of proximity

health, with priority to primary healthcare and networking, with all the structures in the community that can provide better answers, especially community pharmacies and municipalities.

Fourth, strengthening the networking of public hospitals, with the hospital referral networks regulating the functional complementarity relationships between services to be reviewed this year, with the management autonomy of the units and the internal organization of the teams being exercised within this framework.

Fifth, the axis that, in an aging population, the intervention of health services must focus on the recovery of autonomy and support for serious and incurable illness. Sixth, the axis that there is no good health without good mental health. In

2022, two of the four missing inpatient units will be set up in general hospitals, six old inpatient units will be upgraded, 10 new community mental health teams will start operating, and regional dementia health plans are in place.

Seventh, the satisfaction of health professionals with the work of collective bargaining with the structures representing the workers in new careers and in the improvement of the remaining ones being prepared to start. Finally, I mention the governance axis, with the creation of the SNS executive board with the mission of directing it at central level, coordinating the healthcare response of its health units, ensuring their networked operation and monitoring their performance and response.

COMMITMENT to health

Pedro Miguel Carrilho Soares CEO, INTERPREV

Interprev has become a reference in the market for its complete national coverage of quality services for occupational health and safety.

BIO

Pedro Miguel Carrilho Soares graduated in textile engineering at the University of Beira Interior and started his career in the largest textile industrial company in the region, holding a management position in the production area. He later joined the Technological Centre of Textile and Clothing Industries of Portugal (CITEVE) in the quality and training areas. With higher education in food safety and quality, Soares and his wife set up Interprev – safety and health at work. The success of the company led him to create a food laboratory for microbiological control, Labinter, and acquire a company in the pest control area, Darkcode. He has been President of the Business Association of the Sector since 2010.

When did Interprev begin to operate in the country and how did the company evolve? Interprev started in Portugal during a difficult time, in August 2004. Interprev focuses on occupational health and occupational risk prevention, and the company offers other complementary services associated with its core, such as food safety, training, pest control, and fire safety, all of this in conjunction with a microbiology and chemical physics laboratory that we run. We are leaders in Portugal in this area of activity, with a turnover volume that will exceed EUR15 million in 2022. We have a structure of 25 clinics across the nation, from north to south, and more than 600 workers. We capitalized on COVID-19, as we had to protect companies and their workers, and that has been an important commitment for us. In addition, in the environmental area we saw increased demand to disinfect workspaces. From this perspective, COVID-19 was an excellent growth opportunity. We also have an online store where we have many products that are related to occupational safety and the individual protection of workers. Again, with COVID-19 we saw increased sales of face masks, alcohol gel disinfectants, and so on.

How did Interprev position itself so strongly in the Portuguese market?

Our strategy was different from our most direct competitors and the biggest ones in the sector. Our biggest competitors were in Porto and Lisbon, while we started from the center to the coast, from the north to the south. We still maintain this culture in our strategy, which is proximity and being close to our clients, doctors, nurses, security technicians, trainers, and so on. When a multinational arrives in Portugal, it must implement series

of sanitary services that are mandatory by law—Interprev is the one-stop shop which newcomers usually contact when expanding their operations in the country.

How would you describe the profile of your ideal client?

Our ideal client is the medium-sized company; they know what they want, they recognize the quality of the services provided, and that it is not that related to the price. We mainly work with national companies, and international clients represent 10% of our portfolio. This segment is growing, however. Every week, we receive requests for proposals from companies coming from abroad. The biggest group is our neighbor; Spanish companies are rapidly entering Portugal in various sectors such as health, construction, and distribution, almost every sector.

How do you develop innovation and apply it in each operation that you carry out every day? Interprev is eager to seek out new innovations and everything to do with technology. For example, across the country we have almost 150-170 people who are in daily commercial contact with our clients. Everything we do is paperless; contracts, signatures, everything is digital. Our central services collect, analyze, and

“Interprev is the one-stop shop which newcomers usually contact when expanding their operations in the country.”

process a huge amount of data, ensuring our services. We have more than 300 vehicles all in a center with computerized management, clinical centers where we perform medical examinations, as well as about 20 large mobile clinics that go to companies. All these are monitored and managed by a complex IT network. However, we want to do more; we want to use

AI and are expanding and evaluating applications in this area. AI offers interesting applications in the training area.

What are your main goals for 2022-2023?

In 2022, we intended to have full coverage of all the districts of Portugal. We still do not have a presence on the islands, which are small and have a low business

density, or in two districts in the north of the country, Viana do Castelo and Braganza. In 2022, we intended to expand and are negotiating important acquisitions to further consolidate our presence in the country. This phase will be crucial to expanding our operations outside the national borders. It is time to start thinking about an Iberian Interprev. ✖

André Cabral COUNTRY MANAGER, PHILIPS

How is Philips positioned to boost the quality of the healthcare system and the performance of the sector in general in Portugal?

STRENGTH in numbers

Philips is powering the next generation of healthcare innovation in Portugal, using modern solutions to improve a patient’s outcome.

BIO

André Cabral has a solid career of more than 15 years, acquired in various positions of increasing responsibility, both in sales and marketing and in the different business areas of the company, first as commercial director for Spain and Portugal of the consumer lifestyle business for Portugal, then as commercial director of consumer lifestyle for Portugal, marketing director of personal health for Iberia, and, later, Country Manager for Portugal. Cabral holds a degree in business administration and a master’s in marketing and management from Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão and an MBA (DIBEX) from Instituto Superior para el Desarrollo de Internet. He also attended the executive program in digital transformation at the Silicon Valley Innovation Center.

Historically speaking, we were renowned for products such as TVs, audio, and lighting, which meant that we had a huge impact on those industries at that time. Over recent decades, we have been redefining our priorities, and focusing and developing our leadership of the healthcare sector, that now is a leading division of the company. We are a company that is close to the consumer, the patient, and to healthcare professionals. We believe that our position can make a huge impact on the healthcare transformation in the coming years, by partnering with the key stakeholders, and by proving integrated solutions and impactful innovations in the re-shaping of the industry. In the core of our purpose, we are committed to improve people’s health and well-being through meaningful innovation. By doing so, we are strict about how we introduce those innovations in the markets where we operate. Philips in Portugal—as in the rest of the world—is powering the next generation of healthcare innovation; we accelerate innovation across the care continuum with the speed and power of modern solutions to improve the patient’s outcome. After COVID, we understood the transformative role that technology would play. We recently introduced the spectral computed tomography CT7500 to the market: its new technology allows quicker and more accurate patient scanning. We have also introduced new MRI systems for more productive, helium-free operations that ensures a high-quality image and speed. Helium is among the main cost components and has a huge impact on the environment. The strength of Philips lies not only in technology and hardware, but in our vision to connect all systems together. That's where we are making the biggest effort.

What is Philips’ approach to the Portuguese market, and what is your strategy to ensure the consolidation of your brand and establish solid business relations?

I would select three main drivers based on innovation that are allowing us to partner in the transformation the healthcare system. The first is our focus on integrated

solutions. We are bringing to the market not only the products, but the solution that will fit customer need. By doing so, we have the ability to offer a large portfolio, and if it is not enough, we will bring partners to the table to find those solutions that will allow the system to work perfectly; we optimize available resources, ensuring that patient and staff have the best possible experience throughout the system. That's something that brings Philips into a consultant-like collaboration with its customers. The second driver is the transformation of the relationship of one-to-one selling with our customers into a long-term partnership. By doing so, we have focused our strategy on trying to identify partnerships that allow two institutions to think together and transform healthcare over time. Besides innovative products, we also incorporate scientific and clinical support in order to understand how to improve the outcome of healthcare using the system defined to generate that added value. The third driver is connectivity. We talk a lot about the innovation of healthcare. It is a key driver and will be the fuel driving healthcare into the future. By investing in the connectivity of all systems, we will make use of the informatics-structure to allow resources, patient flow, and all the workflow developed in each department to be entirely interconnected. We still have a silo-driven system in Portugal. One positive to have arisen from the pandemic is the realization that the existing system will fail in a crisis. We realized that we need to prepare for the future. Through connectivity and digitalization, we can allow the system to make optimum use of its resources. The opportunity that Philips is empowered to bring to the ecosystem is the outside-inside view with our customers, by adding innovation and solutions and partnering consultancy approach. ✖

“Our position can make a huge impact on the healthcare transformation in the coming years.”

heart of HEARTS

Ricardo Fontes-Carvalho discusses the quality of the national healthcare system, digital technology application, and objectives for the year ahead.

What is your critical assessment of the quality of the national healthcare system and how is your department working to improve it?

The overall quality of the national healthcare system is good, as demonstrated in several national health indicators. In Portugal, there is a universal and equal access to healthcare and the Portuguese National Healthcare System is considered one of the essential pillars of the recent Portuguese democracy. Therefore, it is not surprising that Portugal has one of the highest life expectancies at birth and, for example, one of the lowest childhood mortalities. Nevertheless, more recently, the system is facing several important challenges due to important economic constrains and underfunding of the National Health System, need to implement organizational reforms to the system and increasing difficulties in motivating and attracting doctors and other healthcare personnel. Regarding the care for cardiovascular disease, the level of Portuguese cardiology is very high and aligned with the best international practices. Portugal has one of the lowest mortality rates in Europe for coronary artery disease and, more importantly, in the last three decades we have seen a more than 20% decrease in the adjusted mortality due to cardiovascular disease. Knowing quite well the European and worldwide reality, I can state that cardiovascular care in Portugal is excellent, with very motivated and highly qualified professionals. In spite of this, there is some work to be done especially in the access to innovation and complex cardiovascular procedures, particularly for patients living in the interior of the country. The Cardiology Department of Centro Hospitalar the Gaia was founded about three decades ago. During these decades the Department has made major contributions to national and worldwide Cardiology, having a pioneering role in the

development of several new technologies, especially in the field of intervention cardiology, cardiac imaging and arrythmias management. We also keep a strong focus in monitoring several healthcare quality indicators and patient satisfaction.

How are the ongoing digital revolution and technology use influenced your daily operations and the ones of healthcare operators?

Digital revolution will completely change the way how we provide healthcare in the next decades, with the introduction of artificial intelligence, continuous monitoring devices, big-data analysis, and other digital technologies. Currently, digital technologies are already helping doctors and patients to improve healthcare results, for example with the introduction of the common electronic healthcare process, new technologies of patient telemonitoring, and the possibilities of teleconsultation.

What are your short term priorities and what are the main objectives set in your agenda?

The current priorities of the department are centered around four objectives: healthcare quality, continuous access to innovation, fostering clinical research, and providing high-quality education to the younger generation. First, quality improvement should be a concern of every healthcare department by providing patient-centric cardiovascular care. Although our quality indicators are already very good, the goal should be to provide excellence in cardiovascular care, which is a continuous and never-ending goal. Currently, to further improve the quality of healthcare we need to build new and larger facilities to provide “integrated” cardiovascular care and more comfort to the patient. Moreover, with population ageing we are living an era of “epidemiologic transition” in the type of patients and diseases

that we take care of, which is demanding a significant adaption of hospital facilities. Access to innovation is also essencial in cardiovascular care, because cardiology is a fasting moving medical specialty. Therefore, continuous access to new technologies and new devices is very important to improve the quality of care and to motivate healthcare personnel to improve their practices. Clinical and translational research is also a short- and long-term priority of the department. Not only does it improve current knowledge about the disease, but several data sets have shown that departments that have important clinical research usually provide higher quality standards of care. In this field, our department has developed a strong collaboration with Faculty of Medicine University of Porto. Finally, another strategic goal of a healthcare department should be to assure long-term quality of care. Therefore, our department has a strong focus on providing high-quality training to the cardiologists of tomorrow and every year provides education to more than 30 fellows from all over the country.✖

BIO

Ricardo Fontes-Carvalho is currently Director of Cardiology at Centro Hospitalar de Gaia and Professor at Faculty of Medicine University of Porto, Portugal. He has been involved in both basic and clinical research, for which he has received 15 national and international awards and has authored more than 120 publications. At an international level he has served in several positions in different scientific societies. In 2017 he was distinguished as Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC) and as Fellow of the American College Cardiology (FACC). More recently he concluded a MsC in Health Economics and Management at the London School of Economics (LSE).

Ricardo Fontes-Carvalho CARDIOLOGIST AT CENTRO HOSPITALAR DE GAIA AND PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF PORTO

A SPOONFUL OF MEDICINE

Portugal’s 200-year-old pharmaceutical industry is about to go international.

THE PHARMACEUTICAL sector in Portugal is growing and evolving fast. A major milestone for the sector was achieved in April 2014, when for the first time in history a medicine developed and patented in Portugal hit the shelves in pharmacies across the US. That particular medicine, an anti-epileptic agent, was also cleared for use in China in 2018. The marketing of a Portuguese medicine in the greatest western and eastern economies of the world signifies the internationalization of the pharmaceutical industry of Portugal.

Over the last few years, many aspiring pharma companies have tried to copy this move and go international, with varying degrees of success. The number of pharma startups and R&D departments focusing on drugs has increased remarkably in the country. The National Authority of Medicines and Health Products has been busier than usual to evaluate the new products developed by over 450 pharma companies that make up the sector today. PharmaPortugal, a public-private partnership (PPP), has been formed to facilitate liaison and cooperation among the companies, with 14 pharmaceutical groups joining so far.

A 2018 study by Daniel Guedelha, at the University of St Gallen, looked into the pharmaceutical sector in Portugal, taking into consideration factors such as the input conditions, business strategies, competition, demand, and supporting industries, and saw a “positive outlook for the Portuguese pharmaceutical cluster.” The study further suggested that given the highly regulated nature of the pharma sector, the greater involvement of the Portuguese government can benefit the sector “to become a powerful economic force within the Portuguese economy.”

Pharmaceuticals is among the most R&D intensive industries in the world. Years of investment in R&D is required before any pharma enterprise bears fruit. Over 75% of pharma products in the market have been in the R&D phase for at least 8 years, if not longer. Grupo Azevedos, one of the oldest companies in the sector told TBY that “10% of our turnover is dedicated to R&D. Aside from a few large businesses, this kind of long-term investment is only within the means of the government. And sure enough, over 90% of the funding in the Portuguese health sector comes from the state budget, which makes the government an essential market player in the sector.

The government and the ministry of health are not shying away from spending in the health sector. Marta Temido, the country’s

minister of health recently said: “The Budget for 2022 reflects a choice that began in 2015 and that translates into an increase of more than EUR3.2 billion of investment in the sector.” The government is also teaming up with foreign investors to facilitate technology transfer and financing.

The largest industrial investment in Portugal over the past decade was on a pharmaceutical project. Toward the end of 2021, the Portuguese government and Spanish pharma giant Repsol signed a contract whereby “Repsol will invest EUR657 million in the expansion of its Sines Industrial Complex that will be in operation by 2025,” according to a press release. The contract was signed by Prime Minister António Costa, the CEO of Repsol, Josu Jon Imaz, and Repsol chairman, Antonio Brufau. The presence of international companies will be effective only if there is a strong local infrastructure. In the case of Portugal, there is. There are companies over a century old, including Grupo Azevedos which dates back to the early 1800s. After over two centuries, the company has ventured into new areas while producing high-quality medicines, according to the company president, Thebar Miranda, who adds that “Under the umbrella of our strategic agenda and development, it’s our willingness and resilience to continue to invest in Portugal, no matter what happens.”

There is every hope that the sector will continue to fair well. Portugal is home to several high-quality faculties of medicine, pharmacology, and biomedical engineering, which will train the sector’s required workforce for the coming years. Universidade do Porto and Universidade de Lisboa both offer elite programs in pharmacology, and their graduates are often recruited by the sector.

Another enabling factor is the conducive regulatory regime which, despite keeping the practices in check, does not paralyze R&D. Moreover, the local pharmaceutical cluster is relatively mature, and the transfer of knowhow from fellow EU members is easy, as the aforementioned contract with Repsol shows. The government’s growing investment in the health sector will make the country’s business ecosystem still more conducive for pharmaceutical companies. As for the demand, Portugal will have at least two readymade export markets in addition to its internal one: the EU market, which will be easily accessible thanks to European free trade agreements, as well as the sizable markets of Portuguese-speaking nation, including Angola, Brazil, and Mozambique. ✖

Janssen Portugal works hard to make a real difference to the lives of thousands with its innovative portfolio to provide a better quality of life.

ON A PATH OF INNOVATION

AT JANSSEN, we are creating a future where disease is a thing of the past. We bet on science as a key to finding innovative solutions to reach more and more patients, giving them hope and quality of life. We focus on areas of medicine where we can make the biggest difference: cardiovascular and metabolism, immunology, infectious diseases and vaccines, neuroscience, oncology, and pulmonary hypertension.

WE ARE PIONEERS

We have 40,000 people around the world who work every day to achieve the unimaginable. This work requires heart, science, and ingenuity. Supported by the research, development, and production of the best therapeutic solutions, we are patient-focused to treat, cure, and prevent some of the most important diseases in our society. We extend our activity far beyond the medicine, collaborating with everyone in the sharing of knowledge, information, and contribution to the community.

In Portugal, we follow up on this global project, with the aim of reaching our innovative portfolio the sickest and making a difference in the lives of thousands of people. Not forgetting our socioeconomic contribution, on this journey of about 40 years in the country. The last few years have been faster growth and increased investment, and we do not want to stick around.

JANSSEN PORTUGAL IN A MINUTE

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL FOOTPRINT

• 206 employees in Portugal

• 30% of human resources work for the European/global region from Portugal

• Largest internship program in the sector with 20-plus interns/year, with a high retention rate of 60%

INNOVATION FOOTPRINT

• 32 clinical research studies

• Investment in clinical trials in six therapeutic areas involving about 200 patients

• 12 awards distributed by research theses in the priority areas for Janssen

• EUR1 million of investment for the creation of the Paul Janssen rooms, a telepresence system implemented in medical schools throughout the country

• Involvement in 2022, for the first time, of Portugal in an international innovation event aimed at attracting projects of national start-ups

SOCIAL FOOTPRINT

• Collaboration with 20 patient association with the objective of raising disease awareness

• Planting more than 25,000 plants in collaboration with Semear, an association that promotes inclusion through agriculture

• Donation of about 1,000 food trees to needy families

• Collaboration with the Claro Movement in the collection of more than 300kg of garbage from beaches

• Creation in partnership with Aga Khan of Ser Maior—the first platform to support informers with georeferenced responses. ✖

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A BETTER way

Takeda focuses on both the human aspect of its work, namely placing the patient first, as well as investing in and applying the concept of innovation to bring innovative medicines to the market.

Carla Benedito GENERAL MANAGER, TAKEDA FARMACÉUTICOS PORTUGAL

What is the relevance of Portugal for Takeda, in light of its international activity?

For Takeda, Portugal is one of the key countries in Europe. We are associated with Spain, and Iberia is one of the growing markets for this Europe and Canada (EUCAN) region. We are important for the region, not because we are the biggest, but because of the importance that Portugal places on innovation and Portugal being an ideal platform for creating new ways of reaching customers. We are extremely ahead in terms of digital, using an omnichannel approach to develop campaigns for our customer that accelerated through the pandemic. Without doubt, Portugal is the innovation hub for Iberia. We are smaller, which also allows us to be more flexible and agile.

What does innovation mean at Takeda, and how do you apply it in your daily operations?

BIO

Carla Benedito started her career at a pharmacy in Lisbon, having later worked in a production unit. She began her career in the medical device industry at a subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), where she was later posted to the US, starting an international career that kept her out of Portugal for about 16 years. In the, she worked in various roles at the BMS headquarters for 10 years. Later, she was posted to BMS offices in Paris, Madrid, and later Portugal as General Manager for BMS Portugal. In 2017, she assumed the direction of Shire Portugal, where rare diseases are the focus. With the acquisition of Shire by Takeda in 2019, she was invited to take on the leadership of the Japanese company in Portugal.

For us, innovation starts by making sure we develop our people and give them the tools that might not look like innovation. We spend a lot of time talking about people and giving our people tools, resources, courses, and development opportunities. In more spaces of innovation, we have developed a group created by the employees called CRER, where our teams talk about their development, speak about opportunities, and bring up their challenges for the future. With this, we successfully implemented a new business model. We are accelerating heavily in digitalization. The majority of the campaigns that we develop to reach HCPs, physicians, and associations already include a component of digital and remote interactions. We will venture out to all countries in Europe, and we are measuring the impact and connecting all these different channels through one single portal, so that there is one single entry for physicians to receive information. It is challenging to change all bureaucratic processes that characterize our industry, and with this premise in mind, all the initiatives and actions we are implementing are extremely meaningful.

How do you defend your position in such a small and competitive market?

At Takeda, the most important assets are values. Our vision and objectives are based

on the concept of “Takedaism,” a philosophy based on the concepts of integrity, fairness, honesty, and perseverance that define who we are. We firmly believe that if we do the right things, if we are fair with our customers, if we are integrated, and if we are honest, everything else will follow. We even have a decision-making mantra that we call patient, trust, reputation, and business (PTRB). When we have a decision to make, first and foremost, we look at what is best for the patient, then what is best for building trust, and so on. Human capital is our leading asset, and we have robust processes and programs to support our employees. The impact of the pandemic was positive in the sense that they felt protected, and we gave them benefits in terms of materials, and working conditions for home. Our culture is truly people oriented, which is why we have been recognized as TOP Employer company for third consecutive year. Having said that, we continue to invest and apply the concept of innovation to our products, working in rare diseases and oncology to bring innovative medicines to the market.

What emphasis are you placing on establishing solid and fruitful partnerships with local institutions, universities, and research centers?

We invest heavily in the concept of partnerships. First, we have partnerships with local companies, associations, HDP, physician associations, and societies. We partner with the Red Cross, for example, and with local associations that ensure access to those people who cannot afford medication. We have partnerships with many universities for trainees. One of our aims in terms of developing people is an open door for trainees. Every year, we enroll trainees through partnerships with leading universities. We are very much focused on establishing important partnerships and developing a strong relationship with the environment surrounding us. ✖

“We definitely invest heavily in the concept of partnerships.”

innovation, Tecnimede must triple its current sales. Simultaneously, we will continue on the path we established years ago by strengthening our R&D capabilities in collaboration with national and international public and private institutions in the domains of cell therapy, therapeutic vaccines, and new drug delivery systems. We are beginning clinical trials for new neuropathic pain medication, and we have an exciting pipeline of anti-infectives in the pre-clinical stage. We are motivated by two needs, the sustainability of the healthcare system and unmet clinical needs.

What is the main target on your agenda for the coming year?

LOCAL PHARMA

Given their expertise and positive results in Portugal, local pharma companies have also found success all over the world, demonstrating the strength of the local sector.

What have been the main highlights of the company since its founding?

THEBAR MIRANDA The Azevedos brand was established in 1775 with the goal to produce good medicines. At that time, when we started, we were one single pharmacy and now, almost 250 years later supporting healthy lives, we are an international solid company based on four main values: results orientated, passionate about excellence, promoting collaborations and partnerships, and care about our people. Despite the competition increasing activities and investments, we continue to be focused on exporting not only our goods and brands, but also the image and reputation of Portugal with pride. As an industrial leader, 86% of our production is currently exported worldwide, in fact on five continents.

ANTÓNIO DONATO Tecnimede was founded in 1980 and is a privately held company. In 1999, it established its first subsidiary in Morocco, and 10 years, the second branch opened in Spain in 2009. Between 2010 and 2015, we opened in Italy, Brazil, and Colombia. We have two manufacturing sites, one in Portugal and one in Morocco. Additionally, we have a unit for advanced therapies, UpCells, that is the result of a

unique collaboration with the University of Coimbra. We are the largest Portuguese company in the local retail market and the second largest among all. We also export to over 100 countries. In Portugal, we have a variety of innovative medicines in the cardiometabolic area, pain management, and men’s and women’s health.

What emphasis do you place on innovation?

TM Innovation is key for our success and development, which is why we privilege great collaboration with key partners. Innovation is all about making something better and different, its related to the process evolution. As an example, we always aim the estimated results in a better and more efficient way, capable to add value to the process. Additionally, at this moment, there is a growing demand for injections, and, for that reason, we are focused to drive innovation in the injectable forms and new formulations. Overall, in terms of total business of Azevedos Group, 10% of our turnover is dedicated to R&D.

AD R&D accounts for around 14% of the group’s sales. To be considered a midsized European pharmaceutical company and generate enough resources to fund the full development of pure disruptive

TM Azevedos Group wants to maintain its strategic agenda and development. Our focus is performance; we want to gain market share either with our brands or within our markets. In parallel, we are making a major effort to bring people on board with a different winning mindset and respect for the business and organization. We can share that we are already getting solid results locally, as a result of the combination of new talents and strategic transformation—in Portugal, we are improving our performance, growing twice as the market in the pharmaceutical market and four times in the consumer health market, in summary much ahead of the market. We have a long-term perspective believing and investing in the country, and we did not stop taking care of our people and our business. We received great feedback and recognition from our partners like never before.

AD We intend to meet the year’s targets in 2022, despite the financial challenges we experienced. In the medium term, the Tecnimede Group will focus on developing products with higher value and market exclusivity. We must advance in terms of technological complexity and development cost (essentially clinical). On a commercial level, we need to gain traction in Brazil and the US, as well as strengthen our international expansion. We are committed to the ongoing digitalization processes. We are currently in the 4.0 phase, transitioning from traditional to digital, but fundamentally, we must be ready for 5.0, or technology for humanity, and learn to use human-like technologies to create, develop, communicate, deliver, and increase value throughout the customer journey. Soon, whoever produces pharmaceuticals for people will also have to ensure electronic monitoring of part of its output. ✖

Thebar Miranda PRESIDENT, GRUPO AZEVEDOS

António Donato CEO, TECNIMEDE GROUP

REGIONAL strength

Janssen wants to be the partner of choice in Portugal in terms of advancing value-based healthcare and establishing new concepts of managing healthcare systems.

Filipa Mota e Costa MANAGING DIRECTOR, JANSSEN PORTUGAL

What role does Portugal play within the European operations of Janssen?

We work for Portuguese patients to gain access to our innovations: This is our first mission. I am pleased that we have been doing so and increasing our reach within Portugal. We have been a successful company in Portugal, not just in terms of broader access for patients, but also developing our local talent and even exporting this local talent. Increasingly, we have a large group of Portuguese talent that start and develop here and are still based here. Almost 30% of our people have regional positions based in Portugal. Over the last two years, this part of our talent development was already strong, and then we experienced remote working and enlarging the scope. Janssen wants to support Portugal and its patients and aims to consolidate its growth in the country, adding value and bringing even more innovation.

How do you establish yourself in such a small and competitive market?

What should be done to boost the efficiency and performance of the Portuguese healthcare sector?

BIO

Filipa Mota e Costa is Managing Director of the Portuguese subsidiary of Janssen, a pharmaceutical company of the Johnson & Johnson Group. She graduated in chemical engineering from the University of Porto (FEUP) and holds an MBA from INSEAD in France. She started her career at Sonae Indústria and in 2003 joined Janssen Portugal as business development manager. Since then, she has held several positions within the J&J group, namely the Commercial Director in Portugal between 2011 and 2014. Later, she was at Janssen Italy, where she led the new product introduction teams for the Italian market and business development oncology for Europe. She took over as general manager of Janssen Portugal in 2016.

Janssen is an enabler and activator. We do not simply contribute via our scientific knowledge, but also with our broader knowledge on how to advance healthcare and healthcare systems. As in any other market, there are networks and everyone is connected, so it is important to make an impact within the operating country. We want to be partners of choice in terms of medical education, partnering with the system to advance value-based healthcare, and establishing new concepts of managing healthcare and advancing healthcare systems. We need to contribute to an evolving healthcare system in Portugal. We have the skills, competencies, and interest to enable the change. Sharing and instilling knowledge is crucial as well. We are part of a global healthcare company; therefore, we have access to the knowledge of best practices in other countries. We share best practices and positively influence the local system to make it better in the near future. Over the past few years, the dimensions and importance of healthcare to a country’s economy has become clear. We are here in Portugal to accelerate the change.

In pharma, innovation is at the at the heart of what we do. When we talk about innovation, we stick it in two different buckets. One is innovation in terms of therapeutic innovations such as new medicines, treatments, solutions, and increasingly personalized medicines. The challenge is that innovation is developing faster than the regulatory boundaries. The approval process was designed for the therapeutic innovations of the past decades. The time for approval of innovation in Portugal is a challenge; Portugal certainly ranks lower than the average in Europe in terms of patient access to innovation. The other part is innovation in terms of the healthcare system and its operation. Healthcare in Portugal in terms of data management is below what it should be. It needs to upgrade the health system up to the level that other areas in the public system such as finance, internal affairs, and so on that have a high level of digitalization and interoperability.

What is the importance of establishing strategic partnerships with local institutions in the country?

Wherever we are in the world, Janssen is committed to impact the local community. So, our priority is to partner with local academia, institutions, other companies, and decision makers. We want to not only make sure that our best knowledge is available, but also that we gain insights from them so that we also can be more efficient. Our priorities are research institutes, academia, mostly in life sciences, and hospitals’ administrations. We are a regulated industry, and the authorities are part of it; we need to have open conversations with the authorities and key decision makers, so that we can help in the necessary transformation of the country, focusing in regard to the health sector. ✖

“Almost 30% of our people have regional positions based in Portugal.”

BIOPHARMA

With groundbreaking research and development in biotechnology, these companies in Portugal are laying the foundations for future success of the local industry.

TECHNOPHAGE was established in 2005 as a typical biotech company. We had an initial phase during which we developed technologies, patents, and collaborations, and later diversified, working in neurosciences and then ophthalmology. In the first years, we developed international collaborations, and in 2013 or 2014, we received our first lead close to the end of the preclinical section. We, therefore, began preparing the company to enter the next phase: clinical trials. We prepared human resources and facilities, and we now have a new facility for GMP production of our leads for clinical trials. Since 2019, we have had authorization from the Portuguese regulatory agency to produce our leads in GMP standards. In 2020, we received the greenlight from the US FDA to begin clinical trials, the first IND from the FDA to a Portuguese lead. In 2021, we began clinical trials in Israel after receiving authorization from the Ministry of Health in Israel. Furthermore, FDA designated our product—a bacteriophage cocktail targeting diabetic foot ulcers—for fast tracking, which is an important milestone for TechnoPhage.

We have projects covering 10 programs in different stages, from discovery to pre-clinical in three therapeutic areas: infection, neuroscience, and ophthalmology. We are one of the companies producing the highest number of patents in Portugal.

IBET is a private not-for-profit research organization in the field of biotechnology and life sciences. We started operating back in 1989. Our aim was to act as a bridge between universities and industry research and to create qualified jobs in biotech in Portugal. Currently, we focus on bespoke biotech, mainly for pharma and biotech companies but also supporting agro-industry. Our moto, “providing biotech solutions globally” translates our essence. We are developing products for novel therapies. After more than 30 years, we are the leading and largest private Portuguese R&D institution in biotech, exporting more that 80% of our activities and employing almost 100 PhDs. We are currently expanding our laboratories by adding a new building. Our current infrastructure includes cutting edge R&D laboratories, a Good Manufacturing Practices certified analytical services unit, and a late-stage R&D and bioproduction unit providing protein and virus production, bioprocess development technologies, and production process scale up services for biologics. iBET hosts four satellite laboratories (Novartis, Bayer, Merck, and Sanofi) and has a broad network of collaborations. Our shareholders are national and international companies, research institutes, foundations, and public institutions. We also serve as an incubation platform for start-up/spin-off companies. 90% of our research involves international players.

GENIBET was created in 2006 as a spin-off company from iBET. There were specific projects where the customer needed GMP manufacturing that iBET could not offer. Therefore, there was the opportunity to create a new company that would be focused on manufacturing, leveraging on iBET expertise and on that of some of their associates (Portuguese pharma and food business companies). GenIbet has evolved immensely since its foundation, and it certainly had a challenging beginning. The company was founded in 2006 but we only got our first GMP inspection in 2009. It took us this time to get the facility working and to create all these procedures. Through the network of partnerships at iBET, we were able to have Novartis Vaccines for Global Health (NVGH), a non-for-profit foundation from Novartis, as our launching partner. We supported them by manufacturing the starting materials needed for their typhoid vaccine program—the cell banks and the drug substance—the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). In 2010, we moved into a different area in cell and gene therapy working with oncolytic virus, which are virus that only target cancer cells. There are currently two Investigational Medicinal Products (IMP) oncolytic virus, fully manufactured at GenIbet, being used in Clinical trials in the US and Europe.

Miguel Garcia CO-FOUNDER & CEO, TECHNOPHAGE

Paula Marques Alves CEO, IBET

Raquel Fortunato CEO, GENIBET

INTERNATIONAL BIOPHARMA

Portugal has become increasingly important to global pharma organizations in terms of talent, research, and capabilities.

Tiago Amieiro COUNTRY DIRECTOR, AMGEN BIOFARMACÊUTICA PORTUGAL

AMGEN Biofarmacêutica Portugal is one of the first affiliates outside of the US. It opened in 1995 in Lisbon, becoming the first biotech company to be established in Portugal. Portugal has become increasingly important for Amgen over the years. In 2023, we will be celebrating 30 years of our presence here, and, during these years, apart from our solid commercial operations, we have been actively focused on growing our R&D activities. Together with Spain, Amgen Iberia is currently the second-biggest R&D player for Amgen. We build the future in Portugal, as we are involved in most phases of clinical trials (from phase I to phase IV trials). We are proud to be one of the global leaders in biotech. We are in a unique position to serve patients in the new era, having proven to be a company that conveys innovation, while adapting to changing environments and remaining a trusted and reliable partner. Alongside producing essential drugs, finding solutions that improve health outcomes and dramatically improve people's lives, we contribute to the sustainability of our healthcare system. The local pharma industry needs a great deal of creativity and resilience to build strong valuable partnerships with stakeholders and institutions while growing and maintaining its momentum to contribute to the country’s GDP.

Daniel Campanha GENERAL MANAGER, AMGEN CAPABILITY CENTRE ELMAC REGION

AMGEN chose Lisbon as the site of its capability center in Europe, after evaluating other European locations such as Poland, Czech Republic, and Romania, though Portugal—and Lisbon specifically—was the convincing choice, primarily due to its availability of strong human capital, appeal to international talent, cost profile, solid and mature business environment. At Amgen Capability Centre Portugal (ACCP), we were already able to hire 156 people of 25 nationalities in less than nine months. We are midway through the project right now, and at the end of this initial phase, we expect to have around 300 highly qualified people. The other things that are important about Portugal are its location and favorable time zone between Europe and the Americas, which help us to better communicate with the countries we are partnering with. ACCP hosts diverse high value capabilities and teams across functions to serve our affiliates/sites globally in an agile, flexible, and innovative way. We also have capabilities like cybersecurity and data analytics, which are greatly in need. We want to invest in local talent and actively contribute to the community by establishing key partnerships with Portuguese organizations and universities. Amgen’s relationship with Portugal started 30 years ago, and today our bonds continue to strengthen with the implementation of our capability center.

Sérgio Alves COUNTRY PRESIDENT, ASTRAZENECA PORTUGAL

IN Portugal, we are a commercial organization, a marketing company of AstraZeneca globally. We have a core focus on specific therapeutic areas that can be split them into three groups. The core areas are cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic. We have impressive treatments regarding diabetes, heart failure, and chronic kidney disease. Respiratory immunology is another area. Currently, we are working on lupus, which has not seen any innovation in about 20 years. The other area is oncology, notably ovarian, lung, and breast cancer. These areas saw continued growth until 2020-2021. By the end of 2021, we had an income of over EUR100 million, and we have over 200 employees working toward delivering the best medicine to the right patient. Our work goes far beyond pills. We want to understand how best to contribute to the country beyond the delivery of our product. As experts in healthcare, we can better understand the disease we are working on and support local innovation. Toward this objective, we invest no less than EUR3 million a year in R&D. One of our goals is to understand the prevalence of heart failure and severe asthma in Portugal. In Portugal, we prepare the future for additional drugs while, at the same time, creating partnerships with our local researchers, investigators, and universities.

Alexandre Lourenço GENERAL MANAGER & CO-FOUNDER, GRUPOCONCEPT

How has the company evolved since its inception?

When we started in 2008, we had two or three main competitors. In 2010, investment in this area took off, with numerous brand names establishing a presence in Portugal and Spain. In 2012, our approach was totally different: we started raising prices knowing that during a crisis you do not get new customers even at competitive rates. It was the right decision as the competition quickly exited the market. Today, there is no huge competitor within the franchise sector, and currently we are proud to lead the market. We continue to promote franchising as a business model, and today own and operate four units, while all the other clinics are owned by franchisees.

Can you share your successful internationalization strategy?

In 2010/11, we were already the market leader in Portugal and decided to identify new markets. We evaluated the possibility of expanding in the Brazilian market (where we currently have 10 units), but decided to focus on the European market instead. Poland became our first market beyond Portugal and Brazil. Poland is a huge market of 44 million with no competition, and today we have about 60 units there. In 2019, we ceased our focus on Brazil and, based on our experience in the Polish market, set our sights on other European countries. Our target markets were Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic. We started advertising online, and in 2020 we signed an agreement to launch the first unit in Ireland, Slovakia, and Czechia. We also recently opened a new unit in Kosovo. Currently, we are in talks with in Romania, Hungary, Austria, and the UK.

Maria Inês Costa MANAGING PARTNER,

What are the fields of specialty of CPE Clínicas?

CPE Clínicas has been present in Lisbon since 1990, providing quality service to its patients based on a commitment to individuality, competence, integrity, and humanization in the provision of healthcare. We are committed to the constant improvement of healthcare, based on prevention, health education, early diagnosis, and effective treatment. CPE Clínicas is an PME Excellence in the field of dentistry, but given that it has a multidisciplinary focus in health, in addition to medical consultations in other specialties, it also provides ENT, orthopedics, dermatology, pediatrics, pulmonology, nutrition, physiotherapy, general medicine, and family, podiatry, and osteopathy services, among many others. We develop specialized consultations with multidisciplinary protocols, namely, sleep consultations, dyslexia consultations, athlete optimization consultations, weight management consultations, pain consultations, and smoking cessation. These are multidisciplinary consultations in which different medical health specialties work together to provide a better response to a given clinical situation. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. CPE Clínicas bets on injury prevention, as well as health literacy and the optimization of health gains, through healthy habits and routines. CPE Clínicas is also committed to education and injury prevention, promoting healthy routines and habits and styles. Significant health gains can be made from small changes in everyday life. As such, we invest heavily in schools, where we promote good practices in oral health, for example. CPE Clínicas also invests heavily in sport and has many partnerships with various clubs and sports, where we carry out multidisciplinary actions to promote healthy habits and routines.

Marcos Marques ADMINISTRATOR, NOSSA FARMACIA

What have been some of the company’s milestones and highlights?

Our goal is to help our pharmacies survive and thrive in an increasingly competitive and challenging market. Initially focused on procurement and logistics, we quickly expanded our action to other fields of support for pharmacies. In 2019, we defined a new strategic direction focused on increasing sales of our pharmacies in store and online, expanding our action from the B2B to B2C market, which in 2021 led to the creation of a new brand name: Nossa Farmácia. We are developing a series of solutions based on innovation and bringing innovation to the sector. In Portugal, the legislation of selling pharmaceuticals online is peculiar. If a pharmacy wants to sell online, it needs to have its own website, and it can only sell medicine within its district. In late 2020, we introduced a new business model for our pharmacies to sell on the Nossa Farmácia platform. We mix drop shipping and marketplace because we can buy under the brand, Nossa Farmacia, in every part of the country, but the client chooses the pharmacy that will provide the products: the sale is made by the pharmacy, not by us. Another issue, in Portugal, is that the medicines can only be delivered by pharmacist or someone on the pharmacy team. However, with COVID-19, there have been many exceptions, that led to a new partnership with Glovo for the express of deliveries in several cities. This was possible because we are one of the biggest players in the market, with a market share of over 10% and we intend to continue to grow.

CPE CLÍNICAS

FERTILITY CLINICS

Fertility treatments continue to be an up-and-coming field because of the growing number of people requiring assistance, with a boom of expertise in Portugal in recent years.

How has the business of fertility clinics developed in the country?

ANA PAULA SOARES I worked in the public center until seven years ago, and it is indeed the best place to learn and teach; however, what is really growing is the aging issue and demand from female couples and single mothers. Thus, what we do here is not in competition with the public centers, as I imagined when I first entered the private sector. We also cater to patients who cannot access treatment at public centers such as the most difficult cases that have already had their three cycles. So basically, the work that has to be done is difficult to perform at public centers, because donors are needed and are not easy to find. Moreover, we need to provide the right conditions for donors. So I anticipate the growth of private market because women having children later in their lives is irreversible and so are the new families.

MIGUEL RAIMUNDO Foreign investment has assisted the development of this sector in Portugal. One of the first clinics to enter Portugal was a Swedish group and was followed by the multinational IVI, which entered the market bringing its know-how and experience. It has a large

network and numerous clinics and protocols. It aims to have optimized results, cutting-edge technology, several labs, motivated professionals, and a results-focused approach.

How has the clinic evolved over the years?

APS Ginemed started in Seville as a fertility clinic 30 years ago and grew the business to various centers in Spain—Madrid, Valencia, and Murcia. In 2015, Ginemed opened a clinic in Lisbon. In 2021, we associated with the European group GeneraLife. This is a considerable asset due to the scientific sharing opportunities it presents. Here, innovation and technology are pivotal: we can afford to have the best medical equipment such as incubators, we run genetic tests, and are able to provide a complete medical treatment service for infertility treatment. We have been expanding our space to accommodate a growing team; we started with three gynecologists in 2015 and presently have eight. All other departments—nurses, embryologists, and administration— have grown to be able to provide patients with the best treatment possible.

How does your approach differ from the business model of your competitors?

MR Whereas the previous examples consist of large, expansive operations, there are many clients who prefer a personalized treatment with a comprehensive medical approach. They want a full team of not just gynecologists, but also an endocrinologist, a dietitian, and an acupuncturist. They also prefer participating in scientific studies that have some advantages by adjusting their treatment. They want a personalized approach. We are currently building a new center, and it will be distinct from the type of center multinationals build. Our centers are client-centered. Another difference is that during the pandemic, we worked on webinars, establishing connections with other experts such as nutritionist, physiologists, gastroenterologists, general surgeons. We were able to promote our work and explain that between all of us we create a personalized treatment for them.

What are your plans for the medium term?

APS We are opening a new branch in Porto within few months. Basically, we intend to continue expanding. Growing means serving more patients. The reality is that young women are not having babies. Women depend less on men to support them since they work themselves, and are less likely to marry for children as in the past. Often by the time they finally find a suitable companion they are in their 40s. Ideally then, they should had frozen their eggs before 35 not to miss out on motherhood. But the majority doesn’t know about that. One of the keys to this civilizational problem is information.

MR I want to expand and consolidate my brand. For the centers that will open, I count on my team to be an extension of Miguel Raimundo. Usually, patients look for a doctor first by proximity and location, second taking into account insurance coverage, and third based on the results and feedback. I would like to reverse this mentality of choosing a doctor. First, clients should want to consult specifically with our practice, and not worry about insurance cost. In Spain, insurance companies participate much more in infertility surgeries, more than in Portugal. The goal is to humanize the fertility cares available to provide a personalized treatment and create standards to optimize their treatments. We aim to open a new center in Portugal, which will take around one year to happen. ✖

Ana Paula Soares CLINICAL DIRECTOR, GINEMED LISBON

Miguel Raimundo CEO, MIGUEL RAIMUNDO

The Department of Physics pictured at the University of Coimbra

Image: Juan Garcia Hinojosa

KEEP LEARNING

In Portugal, Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (MCTES) is in charge of higher education and is responsible for defining and implementing policies related to the national science and technology system. Over the last decade, MCTES has managed to successfully improve the quality of the offer, ensuring remarkable progress in education. It has provided universal access to education, reducing the number of school dropouts and achieving the majority of the targets set by the EU, with a demonstrated improved performance from Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries students in international comparative tests. The Portuguese higher education system adheres to the principles of the Bologna Process, ensuring solid scientific and cultural preparation combined with technical training.

In Portugal, higher education is based on a dual approach that consists of universities and polytechnic systems. Universities focus on scientific training, while polytechnics are generally characterized by vocational and advanced technical training.

According to INE, 44% of the Portuguese population between 30 and 34 have graduated from a

higher educational institution, with more than 1.65 million of Portuguese residents who graduated in 2021 (4% more than in 2020 and 20% more compared to 2010 rates, with 200,000 additional graduates). Moreover, statistics confirm that the number of employed Portuguese residents with a higher education degree rose from 1.45 million (2020), a significant increase when compared with the numbers recorded in 2015, with 1.1 million residents holding a higher education certificate employed (26% of the population ).

The Metropolitan Area of Lisbon recorded the highest increase, with 45% of the population holding degrees. Lisbon is followed by the Northern regions, on 31% and the Algarve, on 31% (24% in 2015). The number of first cycle degrees hit almost 53,000, a 7.6% increase if compared with 2020, and the number of master’s degrees witnessed 4% growth, reaching 18,200. The offer is evolving as well, with technical courses expanding.

According to INE, the higher education rate of the employed population of all age groups increased to 34%, meaning 9% growth if compared to 2015. ✖

EXECUTIVE EDUCATION

With a small and competitive education market, business schools have to focus on being increasingly relevant and innovative to stand out and make a difference to their alumni’s lives.

AESE has a unique mission and a unique way of accomplishing that mission. Since our inception, our mission has been to develop leaders to whom we can entrust the future. These are leaders that can leave a positive mark on the world. To us, that includes leadership skills like integrity, professional excellency, and spirit of service. That has been our mission for the last 40 years. Over the lifespan of AESE, our mission has been to find balance in being true to our identity and daring to be vibrant, dynamic, adaptable, innovative, and passionate about the future. The right balance makes us alive, credible, and relevant to our alumni. Academic rigor is extremely important. At the same time, we can instill a global mindset as we are a part of 16 associated business schools, including Asia and Latin America. We instill in leaders the responsibility that every decision they make has consequences on people, not only on their work lives but also beyond. We work closely with the business community through our alumni and partner companies. We also work with our peers, other associated schools and corporate academies and other policymaker institutions. This is a network that is of the utmost relevance without which we would be unable to reach global solutions for global problems.

ISG has many post-graduate courses that we are allowed to teach in the digital platforms. The biggest advantage is that we can create some groups of students that are coming from different parts of the country. We consider ourselves innovative not only on the technological part but also place great importance to soft skills. Our students learn accounting, marketing, strategy, operations, human resources; they learn here the same things they can learn in the US, Spain, Slovakia, or elsewhere. Our main concern at ISG is to improve the soft skills of students. We want our community to be creative, more communicative, aware of the skills to work in groups, and conscious about the surrounding environment and the planet; this all matter on top of hard skills. We have the innovation to improve soft skills and differentiate our students from the rest of the competitors. We work hard to innovate our offer as well: every year we try to see what the changes in the market are. We make a study and we incorporate it in the content of each subject of our BAs and our master’s degrees: we try to respond to the needs of the local and international business community because it is important to have that connection with the market.

CATÓLICA has always been an innovative school in the landscape of Portuguese higher education; we were the first school in 1972 to launch management education in Portugal. We are celebrating our 50th anniversary in 2022 and were the first school to really internationalize and stake our place in the rankings in 2007. Also in that year, we received the three international accreditations, the triple crown all in the same year, the first Portuguese school and among the few in Europe to hold that distinction at the time. So, those are two examples in different moments in time where we really pushed innovation. Another achievement was being close to companies and providing executive education and training, which we were the first to launch in Portugal. More recently, we have a focus on sustainability and impact in our education. We have launched new courses over the past four or five years on the themes of social entrepreneurship, social innovation, and impact; I myself am a professor of social innovation. We also invested in entrepreneurship for impact—building impact ventures. And we placed a strong focus on data-driven empirical work in economics and finance. We are fostering an approach of providing the tools for people to extract intelligence from data across our programs.

Maria de Fátima Carioca DEAN, AESE BUSINESS SCHOOL

Miguel Varela DEAN, ISG

Filipe Santos DEAN, CATÓLICA-LISBON

Carlos Oliveira Cruz VICE PRESIDENT, CIVIL ENGINEERING RESEARCH AND INNOVATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY (CERIS)

it translates into many practical contributions. Our key priority is to continue growing in terms of funding and scientific outputs, aiming at improving the knowledge transfer to society, and increasing our impact in the society.

What main projects are you currently working on?

Can you introduce the work of CERIS?

We are part of Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, the largest engineering school in Portugal. We have more than 10,000 students and about 700 faculty members. One of our research centers is CERIS, which has around 330 members including faculty members, PhD students, and researchers from other institutions. We also have a board with a president and four vice presidents. The center is organized in six research groups. CERIS promotes state-of-the-art research within civil engineering, from pure theoretical research to innovative products and processes. We have a clear objective of applying our research to industrial or societal needs: our research always has an end-focus of trying to improve the way that we live. It may seem ambitious, but

Our projects and researchers always strive to address challenges and problems in cities in terms of the way we manage our infrastructure, the way we build, or how we tackle, for example climate change. At the moment, we have more than 100 projects in the pipeline. For example, one of the things that we worked on was a project for insurance companies in Portugal that we finalized last year. We developed software to predict the reconstruction costs of housing in the event an earthquake hits the city, which is not that unlikely in Lisbon. We also developed a system to assess the sustainability of buildings. In addition, we are also developing other smaller scale projects. For example, we are developing new types of concrete structures with enhanced performance, higher durability and ensuring a reduced environmental impact. ✖

BIO Carlos Oliveira Cruz is an associate professor at Instituto Superior Técnico (University of Lisbon) and Vice President of CERIS. He is also an invited professor of economics of infrastructure at Fundação Getúlio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro. He served as an advisor in the Portuguese Ministry of Public Works and was a visiting scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He has been a consultant to international organizations such as OECD and EBRD, among other public and private institutions.

A scrap metal sculpture of a cat pictured in Lisbon

Image: Brester Irina

DRINK IT IN

There are several factors that make Portugal a very attractive and competitive tourism destination. With its mild climate, 3,000 hours of sunshine per year, and 850sqkm of splendid beaches bathed by the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal is the perfect holiday destination all year round. The ease of travelling within the country and the friendliness and welcoming spirit of the Portuguese are some of the main points of distinction that make Portugal a top-of-mind destination.

In Portugal, culture and heritage have unique characteristics that flow from the country’s history and multiculturality into its gastronomy and wines, vast heritage recognized by UNESCO, and varied landscapes that provide the perfect excuse to get to know the country from north to south.

Portugal intends to affirm tourism as a catalyst for economic, social, and environmental development throughout the territory, positioning the country as one of the most competitive and sustainable tourist destinations in the world.

To do that, the country has implemented specific measures, funding schemes and supporting investment in technology, infrastructure, and human resources. It was in this sense that specific funding lines were created to promote the development of tourism in the interior and

instruments that allow the mobilization of tourism companies and public entities to guarantee a more sustainable, accessible, and inclusive tourism offer.

Aligned with the objectives of the Tourism Strategy 2027, the “+ Sustainable Tourism 20-23 Plan” is a strategic, participatory, dynamic, broad, and creative framework through which Turismo de Portugal takes on the responsibility of mobilizing agents and society to promote sustainability in tourism in Portugal, covering over 70 initiatives and projects that will be developed during the three years of the plan's effectiveness. The plan is meant to be implemented gradually, involving all partners and mobilizing all actors: institutions, tourism regions, companies, and civil society.

The challenges, present and future, for Portugal to become a more sustainable tourist destination impose a shared responsibility regarding the sector, and this is why the plan foresees several awareness initiatives among national tourism actors toward a “greener” conscience and, in particular, for greater responsibility with regard to the three pillars of sustainability: economic, environmental, and social.

All of these crucial topics are covered in the interviews we conducted with the sector’s key players for this chapter. ✖

A FRESH start

With travel numbers and investment gradually returning to normal, the Portuguese National Tourism Authority is optimistic it can match 2019’s tourism figures by 2023.

BIO

Luís Araújo has been President of the Portuguese National Tourism Authority since 2016. He is also President of the European Travel Commission since 2020 and President of the Tourism Innovation Center in Portugal. He has a degree in law and is a board member at Group Pestana responsible for the Hispanic America hotels operations of Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, and Cuba. He was also Head of Development for the same continent and Head of Sustainability since the creation of the department in 2009. From 2001-2005, he worked for the Brazilian branch of the company, where he was successively board associate for new projects in Brazil and board member and vice president for the group Pestana in South America. He served the Portuguese government as head of the cabinet of the Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism between 2005 and 2007.

Luís Araújo PRESIDENT, PORTUGUESE NATIONAL TOURISM AUTHORITY

How did the pandemic affect the performance of the tourism sector?

The performance of the sector was the most visible part of the business that was affected. For example, in terms of KPIs, we went back 25 years in terms of overnight stays and 10 years in terms of revenues. This was significant, especially because 2019 was our best year with a record 27 million guests. In 2019, the diversification of markets was the biggest it had ever been, and we saw the lowest seasonality ever in Portugal. We also saw the highest amount of revenue in tourism in Portugal—EUR18 billion a year. We grew more than 60% from 2015 to 2019 in terms of revenue. The sector also saw highest numbers of enterprises, start-ups, and people working for the sector. The impact of COVID-19 on the first year was massive. In 2021, we decided that the purpose of our activity and our mission was to support enterprises, especially SMEs. We handed out more than EUR2.7 billion over two years to about 60,000 enterprises that needed this financial assistance to survive. In early 2021, we launched a plan to reactivate tourism with the goal of reaching 50% of 2019’s revenues in 2021 and matching 2019’s figures by 2023, and we succeeded in reaching 2021’s target.

How are operators capitalizing on the concepts of innovation and digitalization to boost the performance of the industry?

We have seen a great evolution in these two years, mostly in terms of communication and CRM, among companies. The biggest problem right now is getting SMEs and micro enterprises to understand that technology and digital are not just about communication or marketing, but about efficiency, productivity, and how you focus your business. For too long, the tourism industry focused on product and service. In May 2020, we launched a plan called Reactivate Tourism, Build the Future, which has four pillars. One of the pillars, Building the Future, is focused

on sustainability and digitalization. The training that we provide—we focused mostly on online training and trained over 100,000 people just last year—focuses on these two areas. It is important to do the transition, though you can only succeed if you push and reward enterprises by doing that.

One of the biggest challenges for the sector is the loss of human capital. How are you working to reverse this trend?

That is our biggest problem right now. During the pandemic, we lost between 60,000-80,000 people working in the sector. To restore the number, we have to work in three areas. Two of them we can actively work on, one of which is migration. There are agreements being formed between Portugal and India to encourage people work in Portugal. Training is the second area that we are supporting heavily. We need people to be more qualified to work in the sector, because that is also a way to increase the value of people in the sector. Training is fundamental—we have 12 tourism schools doing a great job in that—though there is then a third part that depends more on enterprises than the public sector: making the sector attractive. It has to do with salaries, careers, and long-term perspectives.

What are your key targets and goals for this year?

Our biggest targets are for 2023: we want to reach 75-80% of 2019’s figures by 2022 and return to 2019’s figures by 2023. To reach that target, we have to rely on better connectivity. The second has to do with diversifying markets. The Americas are extremely important, and not just Brazil but South America as well. The Middle East is also important, as is Asia. We opened a delegation in Japan in 2020, and Japan and South Korea will be extremely important to us, regardless of the connectivity. The third thing has to do with the image of Portugal and the products we have to sell. ✖

One of a kind suites and apartments in the heart of Lisbon.

With luminous interiors that hint at the city’s rich history, our suites and apartments are consciously designed to meet the demands of every guest – for an uncomplicated, restful stay.

LET’S GO AGAIN

THE PERFORMANCE OF THE TOURISM SECTOR was the most visible part of the business affected by the pandemic. For example, in terms of KPIs, Portugal went back 25 years in terms of overnight stays and 10 years in terms of revenues. This was significant, especially because 2019 was its best year with a record of 27 million guests.

In 2019, the diversification of markets was the biggest it had ever been, and we had the lowest seasonality ever in Portugal. We also saw the highest amount of revenue in tourism in Portugal—EUR18 billion a year. We grew more than 60% from 2015 to 2019 in terms of revenue.

In 2020, due to pandemic the results for the sector were far from expected, and in 2021 we decided that the purpose of our activity and our mission was to support enterprises, especially SMEs. We handed out more than EUR2.7 billion over two years to about 60,000 enterprises that needed this financial assistance to survive. In early 2021, we launched a plan to reactivate tourism with the goal of reaching 50% of 2019’s revenues in 2021 and matching 2019’s figures by 2023, and we succeeded in reaching 2021’s target.

To encourage the recovery of the national tourism sector, we launched the “Reactivate Tourism | Building the Future” action plan that intends to be a guiding guide for the tourism sector, public and private, whose actions are fully integrated with the objectives of the Recovery and Re-

silience Plan and the Portugal 2030 Strategy, thus ensuring a concerted strategy for the recovery of the national economy.

The qualification of human resources is essential to consolidate the competitiveness of tourism. Therefore, Turismo de Portugal is committed, through its network of 12 schools, to contributing to the sustainability and quality of the services that companies and agents in the sector provide by enhancing the worth of the professions and promoting work in tourism. We intend to affirm Portugal as a country that invests in people and their qualifications, that values professionals, and attracts talent.

ABOUT VISITPORTUGAL

VisitPortugal is the official brand for Portugal as a tourist destination, and developed by Turismo de Portugal, I.P., the national tourist board.

Forming an integral part of the Ministry of Economy, Turismo de Portugal, I.P., is responsible for the promotion, development, and sustainability of tourist activity. It thus unites in one single body all the institutional powers relating to the development of tourism, in all areas ranging from supply to demand.

For more information about the Institute and its activity, please consult the corporate web portal www.turismodeportugal.pt

For more information about Portugal please visit visitportugal.com. ✖

The pandemic has caused disruption to the entire tourism sector, but countries are now looking to bounce back stronger.

natural RESPITE

The Oitavos Hotel, built on a nature park, offers guests five-star amenities on the same development alongside activities such as a health club, a golf course, and a horse-riding facility.

Why did the Champalimaud family decide to invest in a contemporary hotel at Sintra Cascais Natural Park?

The property, Quinta da Marinha, on which the hotel sits on has been in my family since 1921. My great-great grandfather saw the potential for this piece of land and acquired it in 1921. Initially, his idea was to develop a residential and tourism destination with hotels, golf courses, sports facilities, horses, and so on. From this large-scale idea, the development of Quinta de Marinha started to take place. Today, we have four main activities that are visible to the end consumer: a large horse-riding facility; Oitavos Dunes golf course; a big sports facility called Quinta da Marinha Health Club; and The Oitavos Hotel, which we opened in 2010. The hotel was the final addition to the entire development. We decided to build the hotel taking in consideration the family business philosophy for Quinta da Marinha development (dates back to 1921).

How does the hotel differentiate itself from other luxury hotels in Portugal?

There are several key differentiations. First, when we decided to build this hotel on the property, we analyzed the type of buildings being built in Cascais and what was on offer. We saw an opportunity to build a contemporary building with large spaces and a lot of light that would be completely different from every other hotel in the area. We also analyzed the profile of clients interested in this area. Many of them are from center and northern Europe and seek for space, sun, and natural light. We, therefore, designed a large building, with each hotel room

measuring 64sqm. Second, The Oitavos does not have a management company or brand behind it to attract customers. This is a grand hotel, with a capacity of 142 rooms, and we manage the hotel ourselves. Guests enjoy the intimate atmosphere, personalized attention, and tailor-made service. There are returning guests every year, and some have been coming yearly since 2010 to stay at The Oitavos. The location of the hotel is also important; we are 30 minutes away from the Lisbon city center and are secluded in Sintra Cascais Natural Park.

How is sustainability applied and carried out during your daily operations?

The hotel’s surroundings (gardens) are not heavily manicured, which means we do not use water or products to maintain them. It is a natural landscape, as nature made it. This is a contemporary building with all efficient systems in place. We are investing heavily in solar and installing big capacity of solar panels. About 20 years ago, we also decided to develop our golf course with Bermuda grass, which consumes less water than normal grass. Quinta da Marinha was created by my great-great grandfather who planted umbrella pines and secured the sand dunes. We want to respect that heritage and maintain Quinta da Marinha at the forefront of the best environment practices. We seek to be sustainable with every decision in the long term.

What are your main goals and priorities for the year ahead?

The main goal for 2022-2023 is to maintain and recruit excellent staff. The hospitality sector lost many people who

switched to other industries in the last two years, and it is a challenge to bring them back. We have a solid group of core team members who have been working with us for many years. We also want to improve the quality of service provided at the hotel as well as integrate better the on property and off property services/ activities on offer. Showcasing the venue and its activities and attractions to potential clients in fairs, trade shows, and websites is also key to commercial success. In addition, we are paying a close attention to marketing and commercial matters as we need to stay updated with new trends and procedures in the hospitality industry. ✖

BIO

Miguel Mendia Montez Champalimaud surfed competitively from age 12 through 22 and accomplished several national titles while in the junior’s divisions. He started working at his family’s SPGPS company before moving on to being restaurant manager at Verbasco/ Oitavos Dunes Golf Course. In 2008, he did a three-month internship at Columbia Hospitality in the US. He later joined the senior management team for the launch of The Oitavos hotel and was appointed F&B director of the hotel before becoming General Manager in 2011. He is currently a member of the board of SGPS Company and since 2017 has been Manager of Montez Champalimaud, his family’s wine company.

Miguel Mendia Montez Champalimaud GENERAL MANAGER, THE OITAVOS

A NEW dawn

The Sheraton was able to successfully attract a large local clientele during the pandemic as a result of its offerings and is working to now translate that to a wider international audience.

Thierry Henrot GENERAL MANAGER, SHERATON LISBOA HOTEL & SPA

What are the key markets that are demonstrating a full recovery at the Sheraton?

We are extremely fortunate in the sense that Portugal has a solid reputation in the EU and has so much to offer in terms of leisure and business. We have the pleasure of hosting a large portion of the market. France, the UK, and Spain, being our closest neighbours, are definitely on the top, though all the Nordic countries have a significant presence too. Furthermore, we want to continue to reinforce our positioning in the local market, to be seen as the heart of a big community. During the pandemic, the local market responded positively to the offers, services, and products that we adapted and prepared for those circumstances. We have since established a more long-term relationship, which led us to make sure that we always include in our strategy better and differentiating experiences for the locals.

What role do the concepts of digitalization and innovation play in the approach of the Sheraton in doing business?

high-level standards. For seven consecutive years, we have received the Green Key awards, which is an international sustainable program that has helped us challenge ourselves to ensure our best practices are always at a certain level, and that has been great for us. We have implemented that in our day-to-day culture and briefings, and we have the ambition and the will to continue with this. We are working on a large variety of projects. We work together with WWF to source fish the right way, for example, and we also calculate our CO2 waste. We have some tough goals by 2025 that we are working on.

Sheraton is considered an institution among the corporate business travelers: how are you working to reaffirm your leadership position in Lisbon?

BIO

Thierry Henrot has been General Manager of Sheraton Lisboa Hotel & Spa since 2019. He graduated in hospitality management in France, holds a postgraduate in marketing & business intelligence in Lisbon and has completed the general manager program at Cornell University in US and ThePowerMBA online. He has an extensive international career of 20 years in the Starwood Hotels & Resorts group, now Marriott International, in Brazil, Portugal, Paris, and London.

The digitalization of data was happening even before COVID-19. It was slow then, but the pandemic has definitely accelerated it significantly. Digital technology and innovation are certainly present, though perhaps not on the first contact point, because the experience truly needs a human touch. Digitalization processes are more on the back end for the benefit of guests. We have reviewed automated and adjusted many of our processes during COVID-19. There have been interesting innovations in the industry, such as having an Amazon Alexa in all the rooms. It complements the guest experience, making certain routine tasks seamless.

How do you apply sustainability to your daily operations and be more sustainable overall? Sustainability is an extremely important topic for us and has been our objective for many years. Obviously, being sustainable in our processes always means investing money and having started many years back, we have been able to gradually bring our hotels to certain

Sheraton Lisbon has been anchored in Portugal and Lisbon for 50 years. Being 50 years in the same country and continuing to be a five-star property is also solid proof of its resistance, agility, and resilience. One key point that is important is that our ambition is not to be the hotel with the best design and always update its look, because we have an authenticity a long history of providing the best services. There are many beautiful hotels in Portugal and Lisbon, but we definitely want to be the place where our guests feel that they have the most complete and fulfilling experience when they leave the hotel.

What are your short-term objectives for 2022 and 2023?

In terms of our medium-term targets, we want to have a much more stable financial year. We had positive growth in 2022 and want to continue to be on the right path. Consistency and stability are important in terms of KPIs. Our human capital is also important, and we want to make sure we restructure and reinforce it. Our strategy is to have all the right structures, tools, resources and return to the basics to ensure that the tasks that we do, truly add value to customers and are not only just checklist tasks that we are used to perform. ✖

The best real estate investments with the best sunsets in Lisbon!

Undeniably, the sunset in the real estate investments is the least important thing. The most valuable aspect in this business are the final results, where the good ones can be achieved with the right partner. TOTE SER, during the almost 30 years of existence, has helped several national and international investors in the Portuguese real estate market, with projects of high value for users and investors through well-being with profitability.

Nevertheless, to achieve this beautiful and magical sunset, our success in real estate market was due to all the hard work over the years, which led TOTE SER to one of the best rooftops of Lisbon’s CBD.

Share with us this sunset!

Asset Management, Architecture, Development and Brokerage

www.toteser.com