Where we start
We start with heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Electrical and plumbing follow. The three trades share the same shape: many small firms, almost all run by their owner; work that repeats, by contract, by law or by breakdown; and a competence that takes years to build. Other building trades will only join when it makes sense.
HVAC
This is where we start. Few HVAC firms have any size, and no single firm dominates the market. An installed system has to be maintained, and much of that maintenance is required by law: maintenance plans in large buildings, periodic inspections above 70 kW, leak checks on equipment with fluorinated gases. A good firm lives on annual maintenance contracts over an installed base it knows. Installation rises and falls with construction. Maintenance stays.
Half of Portugal’s residential buildings were built before 1981, many with no heating or cooling system planned at all. Around 49,000 heat pumps were sold in 2024, and APIRAC estimates a shortage of around 5,000 technicians. Whoever has trained, certified technicians holds the scarcest asset in this trade.
| Firms | 2,346 |
|---|---|
| People employed | 12,991 |
| Turnover, 2024 | €1,181 M |
| Fewer than ten people | 88% |
Table: INE, Sistema de Contas Integradas das Empresas, 2024. CAE Rev.3 43222. Text: INE, Censos 2021 · EHPA, Market Report 2025 · APIRAC, March 2025.
Electrical
It follows HVAC. It is the largest of the building’s technical trades and the most uneven: a few large firms, thousands of very small ones, and a thin middle between the three-person firm and the large group. Revenue repeats in three ways: the maintenance contract, because a stoppage costs more than it does; the periodic inspection the law requires; and the breakdown, which picks no season. None of the three depends on new construction.
Refurbishing an old building almost always means redoing the electrical installation, and the load is rising: Portugal closed 2025 with around 15,000 public charging points.
| Firms | 10,960 |
|---|---|
| People employed | 43,019 |
| Turnover, 2024 | €3,279 M |
| Fewer than ten people | 94% |
Table: INE, Sistema de Contas Integradas das Empresas, 2024. CAE Rev.3 43210. Text: INE, Censos 2021 · MOBI.E.
Plumbing
It comes next. It is the most fragmented of the building trades: almost every firm is very small, and none carries weight in the market. Unlike HVAC and electrical, no periodic inspection is required by law on water networks: the work repeats through breakdowns and refurbishment. A thirty-year-old network reaches the end of its life piece by piece, with the client calling first the person who has already been there, which is why this trade is worth more inside a group that is already in the building.
Every serious refurbishment of an old building goes through the plumber, and the switch from gas to electric replaces one kind of work with another. What is short is people: training a plumber takes 850 hours of core technical training.
| Firms | 4,576 |
|---|---|
| People employed | 12,694 |
| Turnover, 2024 | €804 M |
| Fewer than ten people | 95% |
Table: INE, Sistema de Contas Integradas das Empresas, 2024. CAE Rev.3 43221. Text: INE, Censos 2021 · Fundo Ambiental, E-Lar, 2025 · IEFP.
What we look for
| Sector | HVAC, electrical and plumbing |
|---|---|
| Revenue | Between €3 million and €20 million a year |
| Where | Portugal |
| Structure | Purchase of the whole share capital; part of the price may be paid over the following years |
| Situation | An owner deciding what comes next: succession, liquidity, a partner leaving, or heirs who do not want to run it |
If your business is close to this, write anyway.
Who comes to us
- Succession with no successor
- Liquidity without giving up work
- One partner leaving, the other staying
- Heirs who do not want to run it
- Concentrated risk in a single company
- An investment cycle the owner does not want to fund
How we decide
An acquisition only goes ahead if both of us are convinced. To say yes or no we need very little: the accounts for the last three years, a clear idea of who the customers are and how much of the work repeats every year, and a conversation in which we understand what the owner wants to happen next. After that conversation we say, normally within two weeks, whether it makes sense to carry on. If the answer is no, we say why. The six steps that follow, and how long each one takes, are in Our process.