The CIP – Business Confederation of Portugal expressed its regret at the death of António Mota this Monday, 1st, considering that under his leadership Mota-Engil became one of the country’s most successful internationalization stories.
In a statement, CIP recalled that António Mota considered himself “African at heart”, in reference to the importance that Angola represented in the launch of Mota & Companhia, the group’s initial company which, in the 21st century, expanded across three continents.
In the press release, the confederation states that “Mota-Engil currently has business in oil in Brazil, gold mines in Armenia or high-speed railway lines in Portugal […] and that Mexico has become the group’s largest market in the last decade”.
The CIP presidency also highlights that, as executive president of Mota-Engil, “António Mota accelerated the growth of the construction company and paved the way for the business diversification that is taking place today”.
“I was able to call on professionals with proven experience in the country’s governance to boost the company and support it in reading market trends, as well as identifying emerging geographies”, continues the statement.
“António Mota invested in the company’s strategic hubs in Europe, Africa and the Americas, but kept Mota-Engil as what it always was: a family, Portuguese, European company, headquartered in Lisbon”, continues the press release.
For CIP, the appointment of Carlos Mota Santos, nephew of António Mota, to lead the group “represented an exemplary way of creating a future and broadening horizons for a multinational that today employs 52 thousand workers and operates in 21 countries”.
Regarding the internationalization of the group, CIP also highlights that “the way in which António Mota took strategic options and made his group more competitive in the global market [constitui] a reason for applause and a source of inspiration for other companies.”
“CIP presents its heartfelt condolences to António Mota’s family, as well as to all Mota-Engil employees in more than two dozen countries,” the statement ends.
The former president of Mota-Engil, António Mota, died on Sunday, in Porto, aged 71.
Born in 1954, in Amarante, António Mota was the only son among four brothers and was prepared from an early age by his father – who only had a fourth grade education – to succeed him at the head of the construction company he founded in 1946.
He graduated in Civil Engineering from the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), having spent his holidays throughout the course during several years in internships in the different projects that Mota & Companhia had in progress.
A supporter of the ‘low profile’, António Mota valued family weekends and the family nature of the construction company he presided over, and his leadership was marked by a strategy of diversifying the group’s activity, which invested in new areas ranging from road concessions to port operations, waste, water and logistics.
Currently present in 21 countries and three continents (Europe, Africa and America), Mota-Engil’s main shareholders are the Mota family holding company (MGP), with 40.19% of the capital, and Epoch Capital Investments BV, with 32.41%, and is listed on the PSI, the main index of Euronext Lisbon.
Mota-Engil recorded, in the first nine months of this year, profits attributable to the group of 92 million euros, an increase of 20% year-on-year, with turnover in this period reaching 4,090 million euros, a drop of 1.4% compared to the same period of the previous year.