Business groups in Portugal in theEstado Novoperiod (1930–1974): family, power and structural change

Abstract

This article analyses the seven largest business groups in Portugal from the 1930s to the mid-1970s, a period in which they attained an unprecedented scale and scope. The analysis involves a comprehensive reconstruction of the groups' equity participations and corporate networks, using new sets of data. A few common features are found: these groups were based on family ownership and remained inward-looking, holding large equity participations in affiliate firms and segmenting them from more inclusive partnerships with other groups. But diversity should also be stressed: they displayed enormous plasticity in their dynamics of growth, combining exogenous and endogenous explanations. It is this plasticity that explains their resilience, capacity for adaptation, and ultimately their ubiquitous nature.

Multinationals and Foreign Direct Investment: The Portuguese Experience (1900-2010)

“…The 1960s and early 1970s were particularly important for the interest to invest in Africa. The most important business groups at the time expanded their activities to the Portuguese colonial territories (Silva, Amaral, and Neves 2016), repeating a similar interest visible in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but vanishing with the impact of the Great Depression (Silva and Neves 2014). The political instability and the decolonization in 1975 interrupted this flow and was even responsible by a reverse flow of capital repatriation from the former colonies.…”

The state as a large-scale aggregator: statist neoliberalism and waste management in Portugal

“…(Sousa & Cruz, 1995). For a more detailed analysis, see Ribeiro, Fernandes, and Ramos (1987) and Silva et al (2016). 5.…”

The state as a large-scale aggregator: statist neoliberalism and waste management in Portugal

“…This case suggests the revival of patterns of state-dependent economic power that were a trade-mark of authoritarian corporatism. Central-state command over the agglomeration of firms in a given industry had been one of the major tools of industrial conditioning in the authoritarian period (Confraria, 1992;Louçã et al, 2014;Silva, Amaral, & Neves, 2016). Case analysis reveals that privatisations contributed to revive old mechanisms of sectorial agglomeration.…”

“…Law n° 46/77, de 8 de Julho was subsequently enacted to prohibit private economic activity in most of these sectors.4 In 1973, seven groups -namely CUF, Espirito Santo, Champalimaud, BPA, Borges & Irmão, BNU and Fonsecas & Burnay -controlled more than 300 firms and nearly all the banking system(Sousa & Cruz, 1995). For a more detailed analysis, seeRibeiro, Fernandes, and Ramos (1987) andSilva et al (2016).5 SeeCosta et al (2010, p. 273) for a detailed explanation of the actors involved in the creation of these banks.6 Later, some of these state supported Portuguese private groups were sold to foreign investors, either by strategic option or financial difficulties or other factors (e.g. family conflicts).…”