Abel Sequeira Ferreira (Board Member and Executive Director of AEM – Portuguese Issuers Association. Board Member of European Issuers)| On 12 and 13 November 2025, Lisbon hosted the second edition of Portugal Capital Markets Day, an initiative jointly organised by AEM – Portuguese Issuers Association and Euronext Lisbon, with the support of Aon as Principal Sponsor and J.P. Morgan, PwC Portugal and VdA – Vieira de Almeida as Lead Sponsors.
Across two days, the event brought together listed companies, national and international investors, policymakers, regulators, academics and business leaders around a common proposition: Portugal is increasingly well positioned to compete for long-term capital, provided that it continues to strengthen the role of its capital markets as a driver of investment, innovation and sustainable economic growth.
This second edition confirmed that Portugal Capital Markets Day has become a reference platform for the international projection of Portuguese listed companies and for the structured dialogue between issuers and investors.
Our purpose is clear: to increase the visibility of Portugal’s listed ecosystem, to showcase the country’s economic and corporate strengths, and to reinforce the idea that deeper, more liquid and more attractive capital markets are indispensable to Portugal’s next stage of development.
The 2025 edition unfolded across three complementary moments.
The international conference “Portugal as a Prime Investment Destination: Infrastructure & Innovation at the Core” provided the strategic framing for the event. The opening keynote address was delivered by the Prime Minister of Portugal, Luís Montenegro, who offered an inspiring reflection on the country’s evolution and on the essential role of capital markets in financing companies, mobilising household savings towards productive investment and supporting economic development.
Over the course of a full working day, more than 270 interactions took place between AEM member companies and national and international investors. These meetings are one of the most valuable components of Portugal Capital Markets Day: they move the conversation from the macroeconomic narrative to the corporate reality of Portuguese issuers, allowing investors to engage directly with senior management teams, business models, sector dynamics and growth strategies.
Finally, a formal exclusive dinner brought guests together at the Vandelli Botanical Garden, one of Lisbon’s most distinctive historical and institutional settings, where invited investors were welcomed in an atmosphere designed to foster high-level institutional and business dialogue. The dinner included an address by the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing, Miguel Pinto Luz, whose intervention was action-oriented and focused on the Government’s perspective on infrastructure and innovation.
The setting was symbolic: a historic Lisbon venue hosting a forward-looking discussion about the investment foundations of the country’s future.
The theme chosen for the International Conference, of course, was not accidental: Infrastructure and Innovation are among Portugal’s strongest strategic assets and are also two of the clearest lenses through which international investors can understand the country’s transformation.
Portugal is increasingly a story of connectivity, energy transition, digital infrastructure, entrepreneurial talent, industrial renewal and integration into global value chains, while continuing to benefit from macroeconomic recovery, fiscal discipline and tourism dynamism.
This was precisely the core message of the report presented during the conference: “Innovation & Infrastructure: Connecting Portugal with the Future.” The report was developed, at the invitation of AEM and Euronext Lisbon, by the Centre for Applied Studies of Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, through a team led by Professor Filipe Santos, Dean of Católica Lisbon, who also presented the study at the conference.
One of the main strengths of the report is that it examines the structural foundations that increasingly support the country’s investment case: infrastructure development, a stronger innovation ecosystem, expanding digital and energy networks, and the emergence of technological and industrial capabilities with international relevance, going well beyond presenting Portugal merely as a pleasant, stable or cost-competitive destination.
In doing so, the report connects Portugal’s recent economic performance with deeper structural factors, including a more qualified workforce, stronger industrial foundations, advanced digital and energy networks and the expansion of technology hubs.
In our view, this perspective matters because international capital is attracted by credible ecosystems, investable companies, stable institutions, execution capacity and long-term visibility, not by slogans.
Hence, Portugal’s challenge is not simply to explain that the country has improved. It is to demonstrate that this improvement is structural, investable and scalable. The Portugal Capital Markets Day was designed precisely to help translate that national evolution into an investor-facing proposition.
Recent developments reinforce the relevance of this message.
Also in November 2025, Reuters reported that Microsoft planned to invest $10 billion in an artificial intelligence data hub in the coastal town of Sines, positioning Portugal within one of Europe’s largest AI infrastructure projects. On the following day, underlining Sines’ relevance because of its location, green energy potential and role in global subsea cable networks, it was also reported that Portugal’s main telecom operators planned to invest €4.2 billion over five years in 5G, satellite and digital connectivity infrastructure, supporting data centres, AI and broader national connectivity.
These examples are important not only because of their size, but because they show how infrastructure and innovation increasingly converge. Together, ports, energy, telecommunications, data centres, railways, airports and digital networks define the competitiveness platform on which modern economies operate. For Portugal, they also create a bridge between its Atlantic geography and its European market integration, between its industrial base and its technology ecosystem, between domestic savings and international capital.
Capital markets are central to this equation.
If Portugal wants to grow faster, finance innovation, modernise infrastructure and support the internationalisation of its companies, it needs stronger equity markets, a broader investor base, deeper liquidity and more visibility for listed companies.
This is a competitiveness issue, not merely a financial-sector concern.
That is why Portugal Capital Markets Day is strategically relevant: it is part of a broader effort to strengthen the connection between Portuguese issuers and global investors and to ensure that the country’s listed companies are seen, understood and valued in international markets.
At a time when Europe is seeking to deepen its Savings and Investments Union, mobilise private capital and reduce its investment gap, AEM strongly believes that national capital markets continue to be essential building blocks of European competitiveness.
The quality and diversity of the 2025 programme reflected that ambition, with contributions that brought together public policy, market infrastructure, corporate leadership, academic analysis and investor perspectives.
Equally important was the strong participation of AEM member companies, especially the teams that took part in the demanding day of meetings with investors. Their direct engagement is what gives substance to the initiative, as a capital markets day only has value if it brings investors closer to real companies, real strategies and real investment opportunities.
The success of the 2025 edition also benefited from the growing recognition built since the first edition, demonstrating that consistency, credibility and execution matter when creating a recurring international investor event.
Looking ahead, the challenge is clear and demanding. Portugal has a story worth telling and, more importantly, companies worth investing in. Portugal Capital Markets Day has also created expectations: companies, investors and institutions see value in the platform.
In 2026, Portugal Capital Markets Day will continue this trajectory through a more focused format, adapted to the exceptional proximity of the previous edition, which, for specific reasons, took place in November 2025. Rather than replicating the full conference format only a few months later, the 2026 programme will concentrate on maintaining and strengthening the direct connection between Portuguese listed companies and institutional investors.
A formal dinner will be held in Lisbon on 15 June 2026, with the participation of the Minister of State and Finance, Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, as Guest of Honour and Keynote Speaker. The dinner will be part of a broader programme designed to bring institutional and specialised investors to Portugal and to enable them to participate, on the following day, 16 June 2026, in bilateral meetings with the leaders of Portuguese listed companies.
In this context, the full international conference format of Portugal Capital Markets Daywill not take place in 2026. It will return in June 2027, with the ambition, preparation time and intellectual depth required to match and build on the level achieved in 2025.
Lastly, it is important to note that the full video of the conference and the report “Portugal as a Prime Investment Destination: Infrastructure & Innovation at the Core – Connecting Portugal with the Future” are both publicly available, extending the reach of the initiative beyond the two days in Lisbon and allowing a wider audience of investors and decision-makers to engage with its core messages.
At AEM, one sentence has guided the preparation of this initiative from the very beginning, even before the first edition, when the Association’s Board of Directors approved the project and decided to move forward:
“The Future is long-term.
The Time is Now.”
For Portugal’s capital markets, for Portuguese listed companies and for international investors looking at the country with renewed interest, that sentence captures both the opportunity and the responsibility of the present moment.
