PORTUGAL Trends and Developments Contributed by: Martim Morgado and Joana Geada dos Santos, CS’Associados
the regime introduced by Decree-Law 10/2024 of 8 January remains applicable. The reform agenda aims to strengthen landlord pro - tections by reviewing urban leases, simplifying rent support, and promoting build-to-rent projects that focus on investment. These measures are expected to attract more institutional investors and accelerate the consolidation of professional rental markets. Data centres are another key segment expected to attract continued investment. TTR Data reports that the sale of the Covilhã Data Centre by Altice Portugal to the Spanish fund Asterion for EUR120 million was one of the largest deals in 2025. This highlights the rise of data centres as a key real estate asset, show - ing how real estate, energy infrastructure and digital transformation intersect, making the sector strategi - cally important in broader M&A strategies. Technology (TMT) According to TTR Data, the TMT sector remained con - sistently strong in the Portuguese market, with 12% of deals in 2025. Portugal’s growing innovation ecosystem continued to attract both strategic investors and private equity funds. Areas such as AI, cybersecurity, cloud solutions and data centres are expected to remain central to deal activity in the coming years. Following the market adjustments set in motion in the previous year by the commercial launch of a new operator (DIGI), 2025 saw a series of significant trans - actions, including: • the integration of NOWO into DIGI; • the acquisition of Claranet by NOS; and • the sale of MEO’s Covilhã data centre to Asterion Industrial Partners, which together represented an estimated aggregate value of approximately EUR420 million. On the media side, the year was marked by the entry of MFE-MediaForEurope into the Portuguese market through the acquisition of a strategic stake in Impresa.
The evolving geopolitical environment has also stim - ulated investment in defence-related technologies and strategic industries. Although Portugal remains a smaller market in this sector, the broader Europe - an focus on defence capabilities and technological autonomy may generate future transactional opportu - nities involving Portuguese companies (such as Tek - ever) or assets integrated into European value chains. In terms of main regulatory developments, the focus was on cybersecurity, with the transposition of the NIS2 Directive through Decree-Law 125/2025 of 4 December, which entered into force on 3 April 2026, reinforcing cybersecurity compliance requirements for critical and essential entities. In 2026, the European Union is expected to advance the legislative agenda set out under the “Digital Pack - age”, presented in November 2025, aimed at simplify - ing the EU digital regulatory framework and enhancing competitiveness. A central element of this package is the proposed Digital Omnibus Regulation, which seeks to streamline obligations across data govern - ance, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. Energy and infrastructure Energy transition and infrastructure investment remained central to M&A activity in Portugal through - out 2025, albeit with a decrease of 18% in deal activ - ity. In 2025, Portugal implemented major changes to its renewables market, notably removing the claw-back mechanism introduced in 2013. This mechanism involved financial compensation levied on electric - ity producers to address perceived distortions in the Iberian electricity market arising from differences in Portuguese and Spanish taxation. The claw-back mechanism faced significant scrutiny and opposition from market participants. The major blackout in April 2025, which started in Spain and affected Portugal, resulted in the announce - ment of a comprehensive grid security and resilience package in July 2025. This response has expedited investments in energy storage and grid modernisa - tion, establishing hybrid wind and solar projects inte -
1053 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook